GIFT   OF 


P 


THE 

PRACTICE  OF 
IDOLATRY 


L.  A.  CRAIGHEN 


"My  little  children,  these  things  I  write  to  you  that  you  may 
not  sin. But  if  any  sin,we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father, 
Jesus  Christ  the  just!' 

"And  now,  little  children,  abide  in  him,  that  when  he  shall 
appear,  we  may  have  confidence,  and  not  be  confounded  by 
his  coming!3 

"And  every  spirit  that  dissolveth  Jesus  is  not  of  God:  this  is 
the  Antichrist,  of  whom  you  have  heard  that  he  cometh, 
and  he  is  now  already  in  the  world!' 

"In  this  is  charity:  not  as  though  we  had  loved  God,  but 
because  he  hath  first  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  a  pro- 
pitiation for  our  sins!' 

"Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols." 

First  epistle  of  St.  John  the  evangelist. 


THE 

PRACTICE  OF 
IDOLATRY 


WRITTEN  1914  BY 

L.A.  CRAIGHEN 


Copyright,  1914,  by/L  A.  Craighen 


The  Practice  of  Idolatry 

NOTE — This  criticism  does  not  deny  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  proper  honor  and  invocation 
of  saints.  It  condemns  the  practice  which  gives  them  the  prayer  of  God. 

When  I  speak  of  the  church  in  this  criticism,  I  do  not  mean  the  divine  power  in  the 
Sacraments  nor  the  infallible  voice  of  the  chair  of  Peter.  I  mean  the  church;  my  meaning 
is  seen  in  the  context.  When  I  speak  of  Rome,  I  do  not  mean  Pius  X  nor  Benedict  XII; 
I  mean  Rome. 

WE  believe  that  Jesus  is  God ;  therefore,  centuries  and  ages  ago, 
before  our  Lord  took  human  nature,  he  was  still  present  every- 
where, and  present  by  grace  in  souls.  He  was  still  Jesus  in  per- 
son. Grace  was  an  actual  fact. 

He  was  present  bestowing  grace,  and  present  by  grace  as  Jesus,  but 
not  yet  incarnate  in  his  actual  local  body  of  the  human  generation  of 
Eve.  Mary  did  not  exist  at  this  time ;  but  Jesus  existed  and  was  our 
Saviour;  purifying  bodies  and  souls  then  as  now  by  grace.  (Mich.  5:2. 
Apoc.  13  :8.  2  Tim.  1 19.  i  Cor.  10:1-4.) 

So  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Solomon,  speaking  to  the  Jews  of  their 
Holy  Place,  he  said  "My  Eyes  and  my  Heart  are  always  there." 

Thus  he  expressed  that  fundamental  doctrine  of  religion  that  'God  is 
here,  and  knows  and  loves  us. 

But  to  the  Maryites  he  is  not  present;  and  the  eyes  and  heart  of 
Mary,  a  local  and  limited  human  being,  created  in  time,  are  addressed 
as  the  heart  and  eyes  present. 

Since  the  incarnation,  when  the  eyes  and  heart  of  our  Lord  are  not 
only  his  presence  as  God,  but  also  the  presence  of  his  humanity  in 
heaven  and  in  the  Sacrament ;  not  only  in  person  and  grace,  but  also 
in  flesh  and  blood;  he  is  ignored  by  those  who  address  themselves  in 
word  and  heart  to  a  woman  who  is  not  present  and  who  address  her  in 
his  place. 

If  you  enter  a  Catholic  church  at  any  time  you  will  be  almost  sure  to 
find  Maryites  kneeling  before  the  "altar  of  Mary,"  adoring  her  and 
praying  to  her.  One  of  the  teachings  of  the  false  prophet  is  that  we 
must  go  to  church  to  "pay  a  visit  to  our  Lady."  She  is  taught  exactly 
the  same  as  our  Lord  in  practice. 

How  can  we  expect  anything  else  but  idolatry  in  fact,  when  it  is 
taught  in  word  and  practice?  If  the  Maryites  really  believed  in  a  differ- 
ence between  the  worship  of  Jesus  and  that  of  Mary,  they  would  feel  a 
difference  and  express  a  difference.  But  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that 
what  they  feel  is  the  presence  of  Mary  and  not  that  of  Jesus.  Even 
those  who  have  also  some  love  for  our  Lord  worship  both  in  the  same 
way. 

No  wonder  there  are  Modernists. 

More  prayer  is  given  by  the  Maryites  to  the  "altar  of  Mary"  than  to 
the  altar  of  Jesus ;  and  when  kneeling  before  the  altar  of  Jesus  they  are 
busy  in  praying,  not  to  Jesus,  but  to  Mary.  (Zach.  13  :6.) 

They  do  not  seem  to  comprehend  that  the  thing  that  justifies  us  in 

[3  ] 


PfeACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 


praying  to  Jesus  is  the  fact  that  he  is  God ;  if  he  were  not  God,  prayer 
to  him  would  be  idolatry.  These  Catholics  are  pagans ;  their  practice 
and  principles  are  those  of  paganism,  not  those  of  Christianity.  (2  Cor. 
3:12-16.) 

Because  God  condescended  to  become  man,  and  permits  us  to  pray  to 
him  in  this  nature,  do  they  think  that  they  can  therefore  pray  to  any 
human  being?  This  is  what  their  practice  indicates.  (15.46:8-9). 

If  Constantine,  who  when  he  placed  the  Cross  above  the  Eagle  was 
not  yet  converted  to  Christianity,  but  only  to  the  idea  that  the  Christian 
God  was  more  powerful  than  the  others,  had  continued  later  in  his  ad- 
herence to  Arianism,  would  the  "church"  have  continued  its  adherence 
to  that  doctrine  which  was  as  powerful  and  prevalent  and  as  well  au- 
thorized as  idolatry  is  now? 

When  Catholics  taught  that  our  Lord  is  not  God  the  false  prophet 
was  pleased  to  worship  him  as  man;  but  now  that  he  is  compelled  to 
acknowledge  his  divinity  he  transfers  his  allegiance  to  Mary.  His  aim 
is  the  dishonor  of  God.  (Apoc.  17:12-13.) 

When  our  Lord  left  this  earth  in  his  local  form,  he  said,  "I  will  not 
leave  you  orphans,  I  will  come  to  you,"  .  .  .  and  "I  will  send  you  the 
Paraclete,  the  Holy  Spirit." 

But  the  idolaters  refuse  to  believe  our  Lord,  and  pray  to  Mary  as  a 
present  paraclete  to  console  them  for  an  absent  Jesus.  (John  15  :4.  John 
14:18-20.) 

There  are  "apologists"  who  claim  that  the  worship  of  Mary  is  not 
idolatry  because  it  is  "referred"  to  God;  and  that  as  Catholics  know 
she  is  not  God  they  cannot  be  called  idolaters. 

This  is  exactly  why  they  are  idolaters;  if  they  did  not  know  the  dif- 
ference, they  would  not  be  guilty. 

(John  9:40-41.  John  15:22.  Gal.  4:8-10.) 

The  practice  of  the  cult  of  Mary  is  based  on  false  doctrines  which 
deny  the  true  faith ;  and  the  practice  of  Catholics  shows  that  they  "be- 
lieve" these  doctrines  while  knowing  that  they  are  not  true.  (Is.  5:20.) 

A  little  girl  once  defined  faith  as  "believing  what  you  know  isn't 
true."  This  is  the  faith  of  the  Maryites ;  and  their  practice  shows  that 
they  also  think  the  real  truths  of  faith  are  not  true.  (Is.  9:13-16.) 

No  wonder  there  are  Modernists. 

There  is  another  class  of  apologists  and  "explainers"  who  tell  us  that 
all  the  things  Catholics  say  about  Mary  and  to  Mary  are  "metaphors 
and  figures,"  and  that  the  people  who  say  them  "do  not  really  mean 
them,"  but  have  the  true  faith.  (2  Cor.  n  :i3.  2  Cor.  1 : 17-20.) 

But  the  Catholic  practice  shows  that  if  they  do  not  mean  these  things 
they  do  not  mean  anything  in  the  practice  of  religion. 

The  practice  of  Maryites  means  that  for  them  Mary  is  the  mediator 
and  intercessor  with  God  in  our  Lord's  place;  the  name  in  which  we 
must  pray,  the  person  by  whose  merits  and  prayers  we  obtain  grace,  the 
person  by  whose  sufferings  we  are  redeemed,  the  present  God  who  is 
here  and  knows  and  loves  us. 

[  4  ] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

Idolatry  has  become  such  a  habit  with  Catholics  that  they  look  upon 
any  person  who  questions  it  as  the  pagans  looked  upon  the  first  Chris- 
tians when  they  said,  "What  new  delusion  has  brought  in  these  sophists 
who  deny  the  worship  of  the  gods  ?"  So  do  Catholics  regard  a  Catholic 
who  worships  as  the  Apostles  worshipped. 

The  Prayer  of  the  Laity 

Let  us  examine  the  Catholic  practice. 

The  catechism  officially  prepared  and  ordered  by  the  third  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore  for  the  use  of  American  Catholics  has  a  chapter 
on  prayer. 

The  question  "What  is  prayer?"  is  answered,  "Prayer  is  the  lifting 
up  of  our  minds  and  hearts  to  God  to  adore  him,  to  thank  him  for  his 
benefits,  to  ask  his  forgiveness,  and  to  beg  of  him  all  the  graces  we  need 
for  soul  or  body." 

The  question  "Which  prayers  are  most  recommended  ?"  is  answered, 
"The  prayers  most  recommended  to  us  are  the  Our  Father,  the  Hail 
Mary,  The  Apostles  Creed,  the  Confiteor,  and  the  Acts  of  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity." 

The  Hail  Mary  is  taught  as  prayer  to  God,  and  there  is  no  prayer  to 
Jesus  in  the  list. 

At  the  front  of  the  catechism  is  a  list  of  all  the  prayers  required  to 
be  memorized  by  Catholics  preparing  for  Holy  Communion  and  Con- 
firmation,'and  this  list  contains  all  the  prayers  taught  to  Catholics  as  re- 
quired by  the  church  for  them  to  know  and  use. 

The  list  is :  the  Our  Father,  the  Hail  Mary,  the  Apostles  Creed,  the 
Confiteor,  the  Acts  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  the  Act  of  Contrition, 
and  grace  before  and  after  meals. 

There  is  no  prayer  to  Jesus  among  them.  And  no  prayer  through 
Jesus,  except  that  in  the  Act  of  Hope  it  is  mentioned  that  we  hope  to 
obtain  pardon  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ.  (Is.  26:14.) 

Catholic  prayer  ignores  Jesus.  It  adores  our  Lord  as  God  only,  when 
it  adores  him  at  all.  It  puts  Mary  in  his  place  as  the  channel  and  medi- 
um of  prayer,  praying  in  her  name  to  God  and  usually  addressing  her. 
(Apoc.  2:14.) 

The  command  of  our  Lord  and  the  obligations  of  Catholic  truth  re- 
quire that  children  should  be  taught  to  pray  to  Jesus  and  to  pray  in  his 
name.  Does  the  church  teach  children  to  pray  to  Jesus  and  in  his  name  ? 
It  does  not. 

The  church  has  no  obligation  to  teach  children  to  pray  to  Mary  or  in 
her  name ;  but  the  church  teaches  children  to  pray  to  Mary  and  in  her 
name. 

The  church  has  no  right  to  command  prayer  to  Mary  and  in  her 
name,  but  she  should  command  prayer  to  Jesus. 

The  church  commands  prayer  to  Mary,  but  she  does  not  command 
prayer  to  Jesus. 

[  5  ] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

As  soon  as  a  Catholic  child  can  speak  he  is  taught  to  pray  the  Hail 
Mary. 

The  Our  Father  is  long  and  perhaps  difficult  for  childish  minds  and 
lips,  but  this  is  no  excuse  for  teaching  prayer  to  Mary  in  place  of 
prayer  to  Jesus. 

When  a  Catholic  at  any  time  desires  some  grace  or  favor  from  God, 
she  kneels  and  says  the  Hail  Mary,  and  rises  thinking  she  has  prayed. 

When  you  start  to  church  in  the  morning,  your  friend  who  is  not 
going  calls  out  to  you,  "Say  a  Hail  Mary  for  me."  This  is  what  Catho- 
lics call  "praying"  for  each  other. 

Catholics  habitually  pray  to  Mary  and  in  her  name ;  it  is  the  ordinary 
form  of  their  prayer. 

Catholics  are  taught  an  obligation  of  prayer  to  Mary,  but  no  obliga- 
tion of  prayer  to  Jesus. 

A  Jesuit  catechism  giving  a  list  of  the  prayers  I  have  mentioned 
above  says  that  it  is  a  "mortal  sin"  for  Catholics  not  to  know  them; 
but  he  places  no  prayer  to  Jesus  among  them. 

The  obligation  of  prayer  to  Mary  is  taught  under  threats  of  eternal 
damnation  if  it  is  neglected ;  Catholics  are  taught  from  infancy  to  be- 
lieve that  salvation  depends  upon  prayer  to  Mary  and  upon  her  will  and 
favor. 

Catholics  pray  formally  and  by  command  of  the  church  to  Mary.  It 
is  the  ordinary  official  and  formal  prayer  laid  upon  the  Catholic  laity 
by  the  church. 

When  you  go  to  confession,  your  confessor  tells  you  to  say  for  your 
penance  "five  Our  Fathers  and  five  Hail  Marys."  He  may  omit  the 
Our  Fathers,  but  he  does  not  omit  the  Hail  Marys. 

When  during  Mass  the  priest  and  people  pray  together  for  the  dead, 
they  do  so  by  saying  Our  Fathers  and  Hail  Marys ;  they  may  or  may 
not  add  a  Gloria. 

Catholics  use  the  Hail  Mary  without  the  Our  Father ;  but  they  do  not 
use  the  Our  Father  without  the  Hail  Mary. 

Prayer  to  Mary  is  considered  an  essential  part  of  prayer  to  God,  and 
it  is  considered  as  itself  prayer  to  God. 

No  prayer  to  God  is  considered  complete  or  efficacious  that  omits 
prayer  to  Mary. 

The  Mass 

What  is  the  Mass? 

On  the  part  of  the  people  it  is  supposed  to  be  an  act  of  religion 
through  our  Lord  as  Mediator  with  God.  They  are  supposed  to  pray 
to  God  through  him,  and  to  him  as  Mediator. 

What  do  they  really  do? 

The  Maryites  spend  their  time  praying  to  Mary,  either  with  or  with- 
out their  beads.  They  are  present  at  Mass,  but  they  do  not  assist  at  it. 

They  are  like  the  people  who  stood  around  when  our  Lord  was  cruci- 
fied, looking  on  with  indifference  and  praying  to  other  deities.  Mocking 
him  by  their  indifference  and  their  idolatry. 

[  6  ] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

The  Rosary  practice  of  Mass  is  even  taught  as  a  special  means  of 
grace.  (15.24:5.) 

Every  Low  Mass  is  concluded  with  formal  prayer  to  Mary.  Mary  is 
addressed  as  present  and  asked  to  console  us  for  the  absence  of  Jesus. 

This  prayer  after  Mass  is  the  only  part  of  the  Mass  in  which  the 
people  join  their  voices  to  the  voice  of  the  priest.  A  prayer  to  Mary  and 
in  her  name  is  the  prayer  of  the  people  at  Mass. 

Where  was  the  Congregation  of  Rites  when  in  1884  Leo  XIII  added 
these  prayers  to  the  Mass — that  Congregation  which  in  1815  was  so 
jealous  for  the  integrity  of  the  faith  that  it  refused  to  add  the  name  of 
St.  Joseph  to  the  list  of  Saints  in  the  Canon?  (2  Cor.  n  :2~3.  Math.  23 : 
24.) 

These  prayers  are  not  commanded  after  High  Mass.  This  gives  the 
false  prophet  a  loophole  by  which  to  escape  when  he  is  accused.  For 
the  explainers  say  that  as  the  prayers  are  not  commanded  after  every 
Mass  they  have  not  been  added  to  it.  But  this  is  used  to  quiet  objec- 
tions until  we  become  so  accustomed  to  the  prayers  that  we  will  no 
longer  object.  Then  the  fact  that  they  have  been  used  will  be  offered  as 
proof  that  they  must  be  used. 

Cowley  Clarke  says  in  his  work,  "The  Hand  Book  of  the  Divine 
Liturgy,"  that  "They  are  not  yet  a  part  of  the  Mass,"  but  he  points 
hopefully  to  indications  that  they  will  be.  Practically,  they  are  part  of 
the  Mass,  for  they  are  ordered  after  every  Low  Mass,  every  day,  every- 
where. (Is.  5  :2O.  Gal.  1 18-9. ) 

The  Maryites  go  up. to  receive  Holy  Communion  with  their  rosaries 
held  between  their  hands.  (Luke  22:21.)  To  them  Mass  and  Com- 
munion are  acts  of  religion  through  the  intercession  of  Mary. 

By  what  acrobatic  and  omnipotent  performance  any  soul  "offers"  its 
prayers  and  acts  "through"  Mary  or  "through  the  heart  of  Mary,"  I 
am  not  able  to  comprehend.  I  suppose  it  is  one  of  those  things  they 
"don't  mean."  For  Jesus  being  God,  and  actually  present  to  the  soul, 
we  can  offer  ourselves  to  God  through  him,  and  to  God  in  him.  Mary 
is  not  there. 

To  offer  in  imagination  through  her  is  an  insult  to  him,  an  insult  to 
his  real  presence  in  the  soul,  and  to  his  whole  work  of  mediator  and 
intercessor,  an  insult  to  his  being  as  God  and  man. 

It  shows  how  little  faith  they  have  in  him — how  little  confidence,  how 
little  love.  It  shows  what  an  imaginary  thing  their  religion  is.  This  is 
not  "humility" ;  it  is  Uriah  Heep  servility.  It  is  fantastic  egotism  and 
fashion.  It  proves  that  our  Lord's  presence  to  the  soul  is  as  imaginary 
to  such  persons  as  that  of  Mary. 

No  wonder  there  are  Modernists. 

The  Rosary  and  Litany  of  Mary 

Every  evening  in  Catholic  churches  all  over  the  world  a  special  re- 
ligious service  to  Mary  is  held.  It  consists  of  the  rosary  and  litany  of 

[  7  ] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

the  Blessed  Virgin.  It  is  usually  said  kneeling  before  the  statue  of 
Mary;  this  is  better  than  when  it  is  said  kneeling  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament. 

The  litany  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  is  as  well  known  to  Catholics  as  the 
multiplication  table.  But  few  know  the  litany  of  our  Lord's  Holy 
Name.  The  litany  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  addresses  Mary  by  many  titles 
that  belong  to  Jesus. 

Not  long  ago  I  went  into  a  church  and  found  priest  and  people  kneel- 
ing before  the  Blessed  Sacrament  exposed  on  the  altar  and  slowly  and 
solemnly  chanting  the  litany  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

On  rosary  Sunday  I  went  into  a  church  where  the  Holy  Name  So- 
ciety was  receiving  Holy  Communion  in  a  body.  There  was  no  music. 
Solemn  silence  reigned.  Immediately  after  the  consecration  the  leader 
in  a  loud  voice  began  the  litany — as  I  supposed,  of  the  Holy  Name. 
What  was  my  surprise  to  find  as  it  continued  that  it  was  the  litany  of 
Loretto !  What  an  insult  at  such  a  moment !  (Judges  2:17.) 

Benediction  is  an  occasional  evening  service  of  the  church.  It  is  a 
service  of  praise  to  our  Lord  and  of  benediction  from  him.  It  is  seldom 
given  except  as  a  conclusion  to  the  rosary  and  litany  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  though  some  churches  use  the  vesper  service  on  Sunday. 

The  Maryites  spend  the  whole  time  of  Benediction  saying  the  rosary 
and  praying  to  Mary  with  their  beads.  Many  of  them  do  not  cease  pray- 
ing to  Mary  while  the  Host  is  being  elevated.  (Zach.  2:13.) 

The  rosary  and  the  litany  of  Mary  are  the  only  part  of  the  evening 
service  in  which  the  people  join  their  voices  with  the  voice  of  the  priest. 
Between  the  litany  and  Benediction  idolatrous  prayers  to  Mary  are 
often  sung.  Rarely  are  there  churches  where  the  people  join  in  the 
prayers  of  Benediction. 

In  a  newspaper  article  on  church  music  I  find  the  following:  "Not 
long  ago  an  organist  played  the  barcarolle  from  the  'Tales  of  Hoffman' 
at  the  most  solemn  moment  of  the  Mass.  He  forgot  the  difference  be- 
tween amorous  and  religious  ecstasy." 

But  the  same  criticism  applies  to  the  singing  of  hymns  to  Mary.  For 
these  substitute  amorous  for  religious  ecstasy  at  the  solemn  moments 
of  divine  worship,  when  the  soul  should  be  addressed  to  God  and  his 
Christ ;  at  other  times  they  substitute  Mary  for  him,  to  whom  we  should 
sing  "Veni,  Jesu,  amor  me." 

The  true  faith  teaches  that  we  should  call  Mary  blessed,  and  that  we 
should  pray  to  Jesus. 

The  Hail  Mary  reverses  this  order.  It  calls  Jesus  blessed  and  prays 
to  Mary. 

The  whole  Maryite  system  of  devotion  and  prayer  does  the  same. 

The  Rosary 

In  the  rosary  ("Most  Holy  Rosary")  our  Lord  is  regarded  as  a  mov- 
ing picture  and  Mary  is  addressed  in  prayer. 

[  8  ] 


THE    PRACTICE    OF   IDOLATRY 

There  is  a  use  and  a  misuse  of  the  rosary. 

The  rosary  as  a  prayer  is  a  prayer  to  Mary.  There  is  an  occasional 
Our  Father  placed  among  the  Hail  Marys,  but  the  intention  of  the  rosary 
is  honor  to  Mary  and  prayer  to  Mary. 

There  are  some  explainers  who  have  been  inconsistent  enough  to  say 
that  the  rosary  is  a  meditation  on  our  Lord,  and  that  it  is  to  honor  and 
teach  him.  This  they  say  because  they  have  been  accused  of  idolatry  in 
the  rosary.  This  is  the  false  prophet's  method  of  crawling  out  of  diffi- 
culties, and  he  and  the  Maryite  are  satisfied  when  they  have  announced 
an  explanation  which  does  not  explain  and  which  everybody  knows  is 
not  true.  The  dishonesty  is  apparent  to  everyone. 

The  rosary  is  preached  and  practiced  as  a  devotion  to  Mary  and  as 
an  act  of  honor  of  Mary.  It  is  taught  as  a  means  of  gaining  her  "pro- 
tection" and  of  obtaining  "favors"  from  her.  It  is  preached  as  a  power- 
ful instrument  for  creating  "confidence"  in  Mary  and  for  saving  souls 
by  her  intercession.  The  intention  of  the  meditations  in  the  rosary  is  to 
furnish  grounds  for  confidence  in  Mary. 

In  the  rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  the  incarnation  and  salvation  is 
made  to  begin  and  end  in  Mary.  It  begins  with  her  person  and  ends 
with  her  person.  To  the  Maryite  she  is  taught  as  the  cause  and  the 
means  of  salvation  and  of  the  incarnation,  and  her  "assumption  into 
heaven"  is  taught  as  the  completion  of  our  salvation.  She  is  taught  as 
the  First  and  the  Last.  The  life  of  our  Lord  is  taught  as  something  that 
relates  to  her,  and  as  applied  to  us  by  her  through  her  great  mercy  and 
love.  Instead  of  making  our  Lord  the  object  and  the  medium  and  the 
person  of  grace  and  salvation,  Mary  is  put  in  his  place  of  mediation  be- 
tween God  and  men.  And  all  the  while  Mary  is  addressed  in  prayer  as 
the  person  listening  and  mediating  between  the  soul  and  God. 

The  rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  as  it  is  used,  is  a  device  of  the  devil. 
It  is  the  chief  means  by  which  Mary  has  been  substituted  for  our  Lord 
in  the  lives  of  modern  Catholics.  The  practice  of  it  is  surrounded  by 
legends  and  superstitions  which  substitute  Mary  for  Jesus  and  the  honor 
of  her  for  the  honor  of  him. 

The  church  was  1200  years  old  when  this  rosary  was  invented.  The 
ages  following  its  introduction  into  the  Western  church  were  ages  of 
ignorance,  superstition,  infidelity,  and  corruption.  These  are  called  by 
the  false  prophet  the  "Ages  of  Faith,"  because  at  that  time  the  temporal 
church  was  at  the  height  of  its  worldly  glory  and  power.  These  were 
the  ages  when  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  so  neglected,  when  the  great- 
est saints  received  Communion  only  seldom,  and  when  frequent  Com- 
munion was  almost  considered  a  heresy ;  when  the  church  was  obliged 
to  make  a  law  that  Catholics  should  receive  at  least  once  a  year. 

Protestantism  came  a  few  centuries  after  the  introduction  of  the  ro- 
sary of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

Great  is  the  noise  with  which  the  advocates  of  the  rosary  herald  it 
on  rosary  Sunday  as  our  means  of  protection  from  the  devil  and  the 
only  salvation  of  the  church. 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

They  have  so  little  faith  in  our  Lord  and  in  his  promises  and  his  re- 
ligion that  they  tell  us  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  intercession  of 
Mary,  secured  by  marching  behind  her  statue  and  reciting  her  rosary, 
the  Christian  faith  would  have  been  wiped  off  from  the  face  of  the 
earth  by  the  Turks. 

With  loud  roaring  does  the  false  prophet  hold  up  the  Image  arrayed 
as  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah. 

But  we  who  know  our  Lord  are  not  deceived.  We  perceive  the  don- 
key under  the  lion's  skin. 


"God- Mary"  Prayer 


The  practice  of  using  the  Hail  Mary  in  combination  with  the  Our 
Father  as  the  official  and  formal  prayer  of  the  laity  substitutes  the  name 
of  Mary  for  the  name  of  Jesus  as  the  name  in  and  by  which  we  pray, 
(i  Tim.  2:5.)! 

Instead  of  praying  to  the  Father  in  and  with  the  name  of  Jesus ;  instead 
of  addressing  Jesus  in  prayer  in  his  capacity  of  Mediator ;  in  humanity, 
as  well  as  in  divinity;  Mary  is  substituted  for  the  humanity.  Instead  of 
praying  in  the  name  of  the  ''Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  Throne,"  the 
prayer  of  the  Catholic  laity  is  in  the  name  "God-Mary." 

So  does  the  false  prophet  dissolve  Jesus,  (i  John 4:3.) 

So  accustomed  are  Catholics  to  saying  the  Hail  Mary  as  a  necessary 
accompaniment  to  the  Our  Father,  that  a  Catholic  having  said  the  Our 
Father  goes  on  into  the  Hail  Mary  automatically  and  unconsciously. 
Mary  and  God  have  become  one  person  to  him.  (John  14 :6.  John  16:23- 
27.  Ephes.  5  120.) 

In  a  popular  book,  written  to  explain  Catholic  doctrine  and  practice, 
the  author  tells  us  that  he  sees  Mary  beside  our  Lord  at  the  cradle  and 
at  the  Cross,  and  therefore  her  name  must  not  be  "divorced"  from  his  in 
prayer.  And  this  is  written  by  a  man  who  believes  that  Jesus  is  God  and 
that  Mary  is  not.  (Faith  of  our  Fathers:  Cardinal  Gibbons.) 

Does  he  call  these  God-Mary  prayers  "linking  the  names  of  Jesus 
and  Mary"  ? 

To  such  excuses  do  men  descend  when  they  think  they  must  defend 
every  practice,  no  matter  what  it  is.  (Apoc.  2  114.  Ephes.  4:30.) 

But  our  Lord  commands  us  to  pray  to  him  in  his  own  name.  He  also 
commands  us  to  pray  to  the  Father  in  his  name. 

He  tells  us  that  the  Father  so  loves  us,  if  we  thus  love  him,  that  he 
does  not  need  even  to  ask  the  Father  for  us ;  for  our  use  of  his  name  is 
sufficient  to  procure  for  us  from  the  Father  all  we  desire.  Our  prayer 
in  his  name  being  to  the  Father  evidence  of  our  faith.  (John  16:23-27. 
John  14:13-15.) 

A  Jesuit  writer,  in  a  book  written  for  the  perusal  of  Protestants 
("What  the  Catholic  Church  Is  and  What  She  Teaches"), says  that"the 
language  of  foreign  devotional  writers  ought  to  be  taken  rather  in  a 
poetical  sense" ;  that  it  "is  not  serious  doctrinal  prose" ;  and  he  tries  to 

[10] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

convince  Protestants  that  it  is  not  the  usual  faith  and  practice  of  Cath- 
olics. He  adds  that  "it  is  a  matter  of  taste,"  and  that  matters  of  taste 
are  not  matters  of  dogma.  (Is.  9  :i3-) 

Is  the  above  God-Mary  practice  of  prayer  commanded  by  the  church 
a  matter  of  taste? 

He  also  writes :  "Neither  can  it  be  objected  that  we  pray  too  much  to 
saints  and  too  little  to  God.  The  whole  of  the  Mass  and  Communion, 
Vespers,  Benediction,  Stations  of  the  Cross,  Devotions  to  the  Sacred 
Heart,  the  use  of  the  Sacraments — these  one  and  all  are  acts  of  the 
direct  worship  of  God;  prayers  to  saints  are,  as  it  were,  thrown  in  in- 
cidentally now  and  then,  and  hold  the  subsidiary  place  to  which  they 
are  entitled."  (Is.  5  120.) 

But  the  acts  of  worship  that  he  mentions  are  not  the  Catholic  prac- 
tice of  prayer;  and  the  existence  of  these  functions  of  worship  does  not 
prove  that  Catholics  do  not  pray  too  much  to  saints. 

With  the  exception  of  Holy  Communion  and  Penance,  the  Sacra- 
ments are  received  only  once  in  a  lifetime.  Holy  Communion  and  Pen- 
ance are  received  frequently  only  by  the  few. 

We  have  seen  that  for  the  Maryites  Holy  Communion  and  Penance 
are  chiefly  occasions  of  prayer  to  Mary. 

We  examine  the  other  acts  he  mentions,  and  we  find  in  them  in  prac- 
tice the  same  "character  of  the  beast" — the  worship  of  the  image  of  the 
Antichrist  that  displaces  Jesus  under  the  name  of  Mary,  an  insult  to 
Mary  as  well  as  to  Jesus. 

The  Sacred  Heart 

Let  us  look  at  the  devotion  of  the  Sacred  Heart. 

This  devotion  was  inaugurated  in  comparatively  modern  times  as  a 
result  of  some  revelations  made  by  our  Lord  to  the  heart,  but  not  to  the 
head,  of  the  Blessed  Margaret  Mary.  He  complains  that  he  is  unknown 
and  neglected — especially  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  that  proof  and 
pledge  of  his  love. 

When  I  first  became  a  member  of  the  League  of  the  Sacred  Heart  we 
made  the  Morning  Offering  which  constituted  us  a  member  thus :  "O 
my  God,  I  offer  thee  my  prayers,  works  and  sufferings  of  this  day  in 
union  with  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  for  all  the  intentions  for  which 
he  offers  himself  in  the  Mass." 

The  morning  offering  is  now  made  thus :  "O  Jesus,  through  the  Im- 
maculate Heart  of  Mary,  I  offer  thee  my  prayers,  works  and  sufferings 
of  this  day,"  etc. 

The  Maryites  have  revised  the  offering  by  substituting  Jesus  for  the 
Father,  and  Mary  for  Jesus. 

The  catechism  of  the  Christian  Brothers  teaches  the  Morning  Offer- 
ing as  follows :  "O  my  God,  in  honor  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  and 
through  the  Immaculate  Heart  of  Mary,  I  offer  my  prayer,  works,"  etc. 

Jesus,  as  man  and  Mediator  is  done  away  with.  He  is  God  the  Trinity 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

in  flesh ;  Mary  is  the  humanity  and  the  Mediator  between  God  and  men. 
He  is  the  flesh  of  Mary,  and  Mary  is  the  person  of  the  Mediator.  Such 
is  the  heresy. 

The  idolaters  teach  that  we  have  no  immediate  communication  with 
him  and  no  claim  upon  him,  but  can  only  reach  him  through  Mary.  The 
Jesus  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  he  is  no  longer. 

This  religion  of  the  idolater  is  a  different  religion  from  that  taught  by 
the  Apostles  and  defined  in  the  fundamental  definitions  of  the  church. 
It  is  contradictory  to  that  taught  by  our  Lord  and  recorded  in  the  tradi- 
tion handed  down  from  the  Apostles  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

The  false  prophet  aborts  every  attempt  to  establish  prayer  in  our 
Lord's  name,  confidence  in  him  personally,  and  devotion  to  himself. 
(Mark  7  7-9.) 

Devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  our  Lord  is  sinking  into  a  sort  of 
cult;  not  a  devotion  to  our  Lord  in  person,  but  the  worship  of  a  thing 
through  the  person  of  Mary. 

For  instance,  idolaters  "offer  the  Sacred  Heart  reposing  in  the  taber- 
nacles to  Jesus  through  the  Immaculate  Heart  of  Mary."  And  they 
"offer"  their  communions  "to  the  Sacred  Heart  through  the  Immacu- 
late Heart  of  Mary."  (St.  John  5:43.) 

Could  there  be  anything  sillier  or  farther  from  fact  and  truth,  from 
faith  and  reason,  from  love  for  our  Lord  ? 

The  Blessed  Sacrament 

Our  Holy  Father  Pius  X  tried  to  stem  the  tide  of  idolatry  and  "re- 
store all  things  in  Christ"  by  promoting  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment. This  is  the  road  to  sanity.  For  the  Blessed  Sacrament  destroys  all 
heresies  when  truly  preached.lt  is  the  seat  and  center  of  the  unity  of  the 
church. 

But  will  the  idolaters  turn  this  into  the  worship  of  Mary  in  the 
Blessed  Sacrament?  They  will  surely  try  it,  for  this  is  already  a  prac- 
tice. 

In  a  book  on  the  "Cult  of  Mary,"  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Gerrard,  I 
find  this : 

"There  are  two  points  which  seem  to  have  given  offense  in  the  past. 
The  first  was  an  assertion  that  somehow  the  flesh  of  Mary  is  received 
in  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  Pope  Benedict  exposed  this  error  in  the 
words,  'This  doctrine  was  held  to  be  erroneous,  dangerous,  and  scandal- 
ous, and  the  cultus  was  reprobated,  which  in  consequence  of  it  they  as- 
serted was  to  be  paid  to  the  most  Blessed  Virgin  in  the  Sacrament  of 
the  altar.'" 

But  what  do  we  actually  find  in  the  church  at  the  present  time? 

In  all  prayer-books  and  books  of  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
we  find  the  prayer  "Our  Lady  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  pray  for  us," 
with  "300  days  indulgence  if  said  kneeling  before  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment." 

[12] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

We  find  Catholics  spend  their  time  when  kneeling  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  in  praying  to  Mary.  We  find  them  going  to  church  to  "pay 
a  visit  to  our  Lady,"  or  to  "pay  a  visit  to  our  Lady's  altar,"  to  say  some 
rosaries,  and  so  to  get  an  indulgence  (which  I  suspect  they  don't  get). 

There  are  explainers  who  will  tell  you  "they  don't  mean  it."  But  if 
they  don't  mean  it,  why  do  they  do  it?  Why  don't  they  do  what  they 
mean  ? 

The  Messenger  of  the  Sacred  Heart  for  July,  1912,  in  an  article  on 
"The  Eucharistic  Propaganda,"  says : 

"They  who  would  see  the  Blessed  Sacrament  better  known  and  loved, 
who  would  make  the  name  of  Jesus  great  among  the  nations,  who 
would  bring  greater  numbers  to  bow  down  with  loving  worship  in  his 
sacred  presence,"  etc.,  etc.,  "should  pray  to  Mary  without  ceasing  to 
keep  a  stricter  watch  over  Christ's  anointed,  to  lead  them  .  .  .  to  turn 
their  thoughts  incessantly,"  etc. 

So  is  Mary  substituted  for  Jesus  as  God  and  as  man. 

I  know  a  church  where  an  effort  is  made  to  increase  devotion  to  the 
Blessed  Sacrament.  On  Fridays  there  is  the  devotion  of  the  Holy  Hour. 
(Is.  1 :9.) 

The  hour  begins  by  placing  the  Blessed  Sacrament  in  the  open  mon- 
strance on  the  altar. 

Then  priest  and  people  kneel  before  it — and  what  do  they  do?  They 
recite  the  rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin ;  that  is,  they  pray  to  God  in  the 
name  of  Mary,  and  they  pray  to  Mary.  They  place  our  Lord  before 
them,  and  address  him  "Hail  Mary" ! 

After  this  there  are  meditations  read,  each  followed  by  a  hymn.  The 
meditations  are  on  our  Lord,  except  occasionally  when  they  are  on 
Mary.  They  sometimes  end  with  an  invocation  of  our  Lord,  and  they 
sometimes  end  with  an  invocation  to  Mary. 

After  the  meditations  there  are  some  prayers  addressed  by  the  people 
to  our  Lord  in  person. 

O,  sound  so  unusual  in  a  Catholic  church !  Sound  to  which  our  Lord 
is  so  unaccustomed ! 

The  hour  ends  with  Benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  the 
singing  of  the  "Divine  Praises"  and  "Holy  God." 

During  Benediction  the  Maryites  pray  to  Mary  with  their  beads  as 
usual.  Also  many  of  them  do  so  during  the  reading  of  the  meditations 
and  the  blessing  with  the  Host. 

When  the  divine  praises  are  sung,  the  praises  of  God  and  of  Jesus 
are  rushed  through  with  at  a  rapid  pace  and  in  monotone ;  but  when  the 
praise  of  Mary,  who  is  not  divine,  is  reached,  the  choir  slows  the  music, 
and  by  every  turn  of  expression  they  give  voice  to  their  praise  of  the 
person  they  really  honor.  The  praise  of  the  "mother  of  God,"  of  the 
"Immaculate  Conception,"  and  of  the  "name  of  Mary"  are  drawn  out 
and  lingered  on  with  love  and  expression;  there  is  no  such  honor  for 
our  Lord  and  his  name,  (i  Cor.  16:22.)' 

[13] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

It  must  be  hard  for  some  of  the  idolaters  to  endure  what  honor  our 
Lord  gets  during  the  Holy  Hour. 

The  hour  has  been  fruitful  of  devotion  to  our  Lord ;  so  does  he  steal 
into  the  heart  when  given  even  a  small  opportunity. 

The  Maryites  who  kneel  before  our  Lord  rattling  their  rosaries  in  his 
face  always  remind  me  of  those  who  bound  him  so  that  he  could  not 
move  and  then  struck  him. 

Rosaries  and  Hail  Marys  are  the  phylacteries  of  the  idolater. 

The  rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  the  Hail  Mary,  as  they  are 
used,  are  based  on  a  morbid  or  fashionable  sentimentality  and  not  on 
religion.  They  are  to  religion  what  French  candy  is  to  food.  The  doc- 
trine based  on  them  is  a  sickness  of  religion  like  the  sickness  of  a  body 
nourished  on  candy.  They  don't  teach  our  Lord.  They  teach  the  habit 
of  idolatry. They  teach  Mary  as  the  Mediator  and  the  intimate  presence 
of  prayer. 

The  rosary  teaches  Mary  in  our  place  in  relation  to  our  Lord,  and  it 
teaches  her  in  our  Lord's  place  in  relation  to  us.  In  meditating  on  the 
rosary,  the  rosarian,  instead  of  being  and  feeling  himself  in  his  own 
place  of  relation  to  our  Lord,  is  looking  at  Mary  as  in  this  place,  and 
regarding  himself  as  absent  from  it,  and  as  having  no  such  relation, 
but  as  being  a  pensioner  of  Mary.  He  is  also  addressing  Mary  as  in  our 
Lord's  relation  to  us.  This  practice  of  the  rosary  of  Mary  is  extremely 
vicious.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  instruments  of  the  idolater.  It 
does  its  work  of  perversion  automatically.  It  puts  its  devotees  into  this 
false  position  and  relation.  It  establishes  this  false  relation  in  the 
church  as  the  habit  of  souls.  It  establishes  this  habit  as  a  sort  of  "im- 
manent sense."  This  immanent  sense  is  a  creation  of  the  Antichrist.  It 
is  taught  by  the  modernists  as  something  infallible,  because  it  is  a  habit 
of  Catholics.  This  habit  of  soul  denies  the  Catholics'  faith  in  its  founda- 
tions. It  denies  the  revelation  and  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  and  the 
Apostles.  It  is  commanded  by  the  Antichrist  in  opposition  to  the  com- 
mands of  our  Lord — "Pray  to  the  Father  in  my  name.  .  .  .  Pray  to  me 
in  my  name.  .  .  .  Behold  my  mother  and  my  sister  and  my  brother." 

Why  do  not  Catholics,  who  are  otherwise  reasonable  people,  discover 
this  false  relation  and  contradiction  ?  Because  idolatry  darkens  the  un- 
derstanding by  cutting  the  soul  off  from  its  relation  to  God. 

In  some  places  you  will  find  people  who  seldom  go  to  church,  but 
who  have  images  and  pictures  before  which  they  burn  candles.  They  do 
not  go  to  Mass,  but  they  make  novenas  to  saints  at  home.  There  are  also 
neighbors  who  ridicule  their  practice  and  who  are  infidels,  though  they 
should  be  Catholics.  For  infidelity  is  the  fruit  of  idolatry.  The  church 
who  has  taught  and  authorized  these  practices  thus  suffers,  not  as  the 
follower  of  Christ,  but  as  his  enemy.  (Pet.  4:15-16.  2  Pet.  2:1-2.  Osee 
2:10-13.  Apoc.  17:15-18.) 

Of  course,  these  idolaters  know,  no  matter  how  ignorant  they  are, 
that  the  saints  are  not  God ;  they  do  not  worship  them  as  God,  but  they 
worship  them  in  the  place  of  God. 


THE    PRACTICE    OF   IDOLATRY 

And  this  is  what  the  false  prophet  tells  us  is  not  idolatry.  (Rom.  1:21- 

250 

Not  long  ago  I  went  into  a  church  where  the  schoolchildren  were  at 
Mass.  They  began  to  recite  the  rosary  aloud  as  the  priest  ascended  the 
altar.  Their  voices  were  harsh  and  distressing.  I  was  sorry  for  the 
priest,  but  perhaps  he  liked  it.  The  children  were  not  so  attentive  as 
children  I  have  seen  who  do  not  say  the  rosary  during  Mass.  Their 
mouths  were  busy  and  their  eyes  wandered  around  the  church.  The 
loud  recitation  continued  to  the  Sanctus  bell ;  there  was  silence  during 
the  actual  words  of  the  consecration ;  then  the  rosary  began  again  and 
continued  to  the  communion  of  the  people.  After  this  I  went  out ;  but 
as  I  went  I  heard  the  voices  again  in  the  "prayers  after  Mass." 

These  children  did  not  hear  Mass.  They  prayed  to  God  through  the 
intercession  of  Mary.  They  were  present  at  Mass,  but  they  did  not  as- 
sist at  it. 

This  is  the  way  the  Maryites  are  trained  to  hear  Mass.  And  the 
apologizer  tells  us  that  Mass  is  an  act  of  direct  worship  of  God,  and 
therefore  Catholics  only  pray  to  Mary  once  in  a  while. 

A  two-page  leaflet  distributed  at  the  church  door  during  the  month  of 
June  purports  to  be  devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart. 

It  contains  prayer  to  the  Heart  of  Mary.  Evidently  "Sacred  Heart" 
means  "Sacred  Hearts,"  just  as  "Saviour"  means  to  the  idolaters 
"Mary-Jesus"  when  it  does  not  mean  "Queen  of  heaven." 

This  leaflet  contains  the  heresy  which  teaches  that  prayer  to  Jesus 
must  be  in  the  name  of  Mary. 

It  contains  a  paragraph  addressed  to  the  heart  of  Mary,  asking  her  to 
"present"  these  prayers,  resolutions,  acts  of  love,  etc.,  to  the  heart  of 
Jesus,  and  "having  been  my  protectress  here  on  earth,  Blessed  Mother, 
you  will  be  my  queen  in  heaven." 

This  is  part  of  the  Act  of  Consecration.  The  concluding  words  of  the 
Act  are,  "Sweet  Heart  of  Mary,  be  my  salvation;  Jesus,  mercy;  amen." 

In  the  Act  of  Reparation,  the  "Sacred  Heart  reposing  in  the  taber- 
nacle" is  "offered"  to  the  "Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus"  "through  the  Im- 
maculate Heart  of  Mary." 

These  things  are  so  tortuous  that  they  are  painful.  This  is  an  indul- 
genced  prayer.  (15.32:6.) 

Among  the  "aspirations"  to  the  Sacred  Heart  in  this  leaflet  are  the 
following:  "Sweet  Heart  of  Mary,  be  my  salvation"  and  "Sweet 
Hearts  of  Jesus  and  Mary,  be  my  Refuge." 

This  last  aspiration  is  an  example  of  that  form  of  heresy  which 
places  Mary  and  Jesus  in  the  same  place  as  objects  of  prayer,  and  is 
perhaps  what  the  writer  previously  quoted  had  in  mind  when  he  talked 
so  dishonestly  of  "linking"  the  names  of  Jesus  and  Mary  in  prayer,  be- 
cause they  were  linked  in  their  local  life  on  earth. 

It  is  so  strange  that  the  name  of  Mary  is  so  readily  and  so  constantly 
used  by  Catholics  separately  from  the  name  of  Jesus  as  the  name  of 

[15] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

prayer,  but  that  Jesus  cannot  be  addressed  or  made  an  object  of  prayer 
unless  Mary  is  addressed  also ! 

Was  there  ever  such  a  reversal  of  relations  as  that  made  by  Catholics 
between  God  and  his  servants,  and  between  the  name  of  Jesus  and  the 
name  of  Mary? 

Some  examples  of  the  union  of  names  and  relations  are  the  follow- 
ing: "Sacred  Hearts  of  Jesus  and  Mary";  "Jesus,  Mary,  and  Joseph, 
be  with  me  in  my  last  agony";  " Jesus,  Mary,  be  in  your  soul."  (Amos 
5:25-26.15.40:25.) 


The  Teaching  of  Heresy 


The  practice  which  substitutes  Mary  for  Jesus,  by  teaching  that  we 
cannot,  do  not,  or  must  not  pray  to  God  except  through  the  intercession 
of  Mary,  is  illustrated  by  the  instructions  of  books  of  meditation.  We 
are  told  to  offer  our  meditations  by  the  hands  of  Mary.  To  end  them  by 
colloquies  with  her.  To  ask  her  to  "help"  us  to  make  a  good  meditation. 
She  is  prayed  to  as  a  present  help. 

In  a  Jesuit  book  of  instructions  for  making  a  retreat  we  are  told 
"during  the  afternoon,  visit  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  Our  Lady  ac- 
cording to  the  time  at  your  disposal."  In  beginning  the  day  of  retreat 
we  are  told  to  first  recite  a  Veni  Creator  to  obtain  the  illumination  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then  the  Hail  Mary  to  obtain  the  protection  of 
Mary. 

Finally  we  are  told  that  "Care  must  be  taken  to  close  with  the  Pater 
Noster  and  the  Hail  Mary."  (Apoc.  13:16-18.) 

The  Omnipresence  of  jfesus 

In  Mother  Loyola's  book  on  First  Confession  is  given  the  following 
preparation  for  examination  of  conscience: 

"i)l.  My  God,  help  me  to  make  a  good  confession. 
"2).  Dear  Mother  Mary,  pray  for  me  and  help  me. 
"3).  Dear  angel  ever  at  my  side,  help  me. 

"4).  My  dear  Patron  Saint,  ask  Jesus  to  make  me  sorry  for  my 
sins." 

Jesus  is  not  addressed,  although  he  only  beside  God  and  the  angel  are 
present.  He  is  closer  than  the  angel.  He  is  the  one  who  can  really  help. 
He  is  the  one  real  medium  between  the  soul  and  God.  He  is  one  whose 
desire  to  help  is  a  matter  of  known  faith,  and  whose  presence  and  love 
and  help  can  be  relied  on  as  certain  on  all  occasions.  It  is  certain  that  he 
hears  and  attends  to  all  the  soul's  prayer.  It  is  not  certain  that  Mary 
and  the  saint  do  so.  To  address  Jesus  is  to  address  the  Rock  of  our 
faith,  whose  presence  and  help  is  of  faith.  Only  he  can  hear  each  and  all 
at  once. 

[16! 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

The  false  prophet  is  careful  that  there  are  plenty  of  substitutes, 
and  that  to  address  Jesus  does  not  become  a  habit.  He  does  not  wish 
the  soul  to  feel  that  these  matters  are  most  intimate  matters  of  concern 
to  Jesus  and  the  soul,  and  that  they  are  not  so  to  the  others  addressed, 
and  cannot  be.  His  great  object  is  to  prevent  confidence  in  Jesus  and  to 
substitute  confidence  in  some  human  being  who  is  not  present. 

So  does  the  false  prophet  make  Jesus,  the  present  helper  and  medi- 
ator, disappear  from  the  knowledge  of  Catholics,  and  substitutes  the 
images  of  the  imagination. 

However,  Mother  Loyola's  books  are  unusually  free  from  idolatry. 
They  teach  more  true  religion  than  most  books  of  yistruction. 


Poisoning  the  VPells 


I  have  a  book,  "Simple  Talks  for  First  Communicants,"  published  by 
the  Mission  Press  of  Boston. 

The  writer  first  tries  to  impress  the  child  with  the  reality  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  presence.  She  says :  "But  you  know  the  Babe  in  the  manger 
was  God ;  you  know  the  Holy  One  dying  on  the  Cross  was  God ;  and 
you  know  that  the  Sacred  Host  on  the  altar  is  God;  he  said  so  him- 
self." She  then  destroys  this  faith  by  the  following  teaching.  She  says : 
"If  you  had  lived  when  our  Lord  was  a  tiny  babe  in  the  manger  at 
Bethlehem,  if  you  had  gone  to  see  him,  perhaps  our  Lady  would  tell 
you  that  you  might  hold  him  in  your  arms  just  a  minute.  .  .  .  Well 
now,  you  are  going  to  hold  Jesus  in  your  heart  on  Communion  Day. 
Ask  our  Lady  to  show  you  how  to  receive  him,  how  to  be  ready.  Ask 
her  to  keep  near  you,  and  tell  you  how  to  talk  to  him,  how  to  entertain 
him  in  your  heart.  She  know  the  best  way  because  she  is  his  Mother. 
.  .  .  Ask  her  every  day  from  now  until  that  great  communion  day.  Say 
every  morning,  'Sweet  Mother  Mary,  teach  me  how  to  receive  your 
Divine  Son.  .  .  .  Pray  for  me,  dear  Lady,  that  I  may  receive  him 
worthily.' " 

Here  we  see  that  Mary  is  taught  as  a  present  God  who  instructs  the 
heart,  and  Jesus  as  a  babe  who  is  to  be  held  for  a  moment.  Mary  and 
not  Jesus  is  the  present  helper  and  instructor ;  Mary  and  not  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  the  present  God  to  teach  how  to  pray. 

This  teacher  does  not  tell  the  children  that  the  presence  of  Mary  is 
only  imaginary.  No,  she  teaches  Mary  as  really  present  to  help  all  the 
time.  She  teaches  her  as  just  the  same  as  Jesus  in  her  powers.  She 
teaches  Mary  as  present  to  the  child,  telling  her  how  to  receive  Jesus. 
She  makes  Mary  as  much  present  at  the  Communion  as  Jesus,  in  as 
close  a  relation  to  the  soul,  and  almost  as  close  a  relation  to  the  body. 
Jesus  is  received  into  the  mouth,  but  Mary  is  right  there  telling  the 
child  how  to  act  and  what  to  say  to  him.  Jesus,  of  course,  can't  tell  the 
child  anything  or  teach  her  anything;  he  is  only  a  babe  or  a  wafer.  The 
real  teaching  of  this  instruction  is  that  Jesus  and  Mary  are  present 
spiritually  in  exactly  the  same  way,  and  that  in  Holy  Communion  we 

[17] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

receive  a  wafer,  and  we  may  imagine  Jesus  as  present  in  the  wafer  in 
the  form  of  a  babe  just  as  we  imagine  Mary  as  holding  him  and  hand- 
ing him  to  us.  There  is  no  instruction  that  Mary  is  there  in  imagination 
and  Jesus  in  reality.  If  the  idolaters  were  taught  that  what  they  believe 
and  practice  in  regard  to  Mary  is  only  imagination,  they  would  not  be 
so  pleased  to  practice  it.  But  if  they  do  consider  it  imagination,  they 
consider  Jesus  the  same;  for  their  practice  in  regard  to  Jesus  shows 
less  faith  and  less  reality  than  their  practice  in  regard  to  Mary. 

The  writer  gives  some  good  prayers  to  Jesus  to  be  said  after  receiv- 
ing Communion;  and  then  she  tells  the  child  to  say  to  Mary,  "Sweet 
Mother,  I  put  my  Communion  in  your  hands.  Offer  it  to  your  divine 
Son,  and  he  will  offer  it  to  his  Eternal  Father." 

This  is  the  religion  of  the  Antichrist. 

In  such  a  confusion  of  real  and  imaginary — in  which  the  imaginary 
is  taught  as  real  and  the  real  as  imaginary,  and  no  distinction  is  made 
between  prayer  to  Jesus  and  prayer  to  Mary,  nor  between  the  relations 
we  have  in  prayer  with  one  and  the  other,  nor  between  the  relations  in 
presence  and  help  and  grace — is  the  child  instructed  by  the  Catholic 
church  in  the  religion  of  the  idolater. 

Mary  is  taught  as  the  mediator  between  the  soul  and  Jesus.  She  is 
taught  as  God  in  everything  except  in  his  essence  as  divinity.  But  she  is 
taught  as  divinity  itself  in  its  relation  to  us. 

The  writer  just  quoted  also  tells  the  child  that  when  she  leaves  the 
altar  she  may  pay  a  visit  to  the  altar  in  imagination  (she  calls  this  pay- 
ing a  visit  to  the  altar  in  spirit).  She  does  not  teach  to  pray  to  Jesus 
present ;  this  prayer  is  reserved  for  Mary. 

In  prayer-books  and  books  of  instruction  we  are  told  to  "consecrate" 
ourselves  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  as  though  she  were  God,  and  then  to 
"have  confidence"  in  her  that  we  "belong"  to  her  and  that  she  "watches" 
over  us  and  "protects"  us. 

In  catechisms  and  prayer-books  we  are  told  that  in  moments  of  dan- 
ger and  temptation  we  should  pray  "Mother,  Mary,  help  me" ;  "Mary, 
Mother,  protect  me." 

The  pagan  idolaters  went  no  further  than  the  Catholic  idolaters  do. 

Not  long  ago  I  helped  to  prepare  a  little  girl  for  her  first  Communion. 
She  was  twelve  years  old.  She  made  her  first  Communion  after  a  hur- 
ried preparation  of  a  few  weeks;  but  she  had  gone  to  Sunday-school 
spasmodically  all  her  life,  and  had  the  home  influence  of  sisters  and 
brother  who  received  Communion  monthly. 

I  found  that  someone  had  told  the  child  to  imagine  that  she  received 
our  Lord  from  the  hands  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

When  I  remonstrated  with  my  friend,  and  asked  her  why  she 
changed  the  child's  first  Communion  from  a  reality  to  an  imagination, 
she  said  someone  else  had  done  this ;  that  she  had  only  told  her  to  ask 
the  Blessed  Virgin  to  help  her  make  a  good  Communion.  Which  of 
these  two  follies  was  the  better? 

When  we  talked  of  prayer  I  told  the  child  that  she  must  remember 

[18] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

that  the  Hail  Mary  is  only  the  invocation  of  a  saint,  and  that  prayer  is 
addressed  to  God. 

She  replied  in  great  surprise  and  consternation,  "But  the  Blessed 
Virgin  is  just  the  same  as  God."  I  said,  "No,  she  is  not."  The  child  an- 
swered, "But  she  is  just  as  good  as  God  anyway."  I  said  "No"  again. 

The  next  day  the  child  told  me  she  had  asked  her  grandmother,  and 
her  grandmother  said  that  the  Hail  Mary  must  be  prayer.  "For  if  not, 
why  should  the  priests  say  it?"  (2  Thes.  2:1-10.) 

One  priest  of  her  Sunday-school  preached  in  church  that  "The  inter- 
cession of  the  Blessed  Virgin  must  be  necessary  to  salvation,  or  why 
would  the  church  call  her  the  'Refuge  of  Sinners.'"  Another  preached 
that  "Prayer  is  due  to  Mary  as  Mediator  with  God" ;  he  also  said  that 
devotion  to  Mary  is  the  wedding  garment  without  which  souls  will  be 
cast  out  of  heaven ;  he  also  said  that  the  rosary  is  the  cause  of  the  re- 
tention of  the  Catholic  faith  in  Ireland.  (Acts  4:10-12.) 

Another  priest  of  the  Sunday-school  preaches  that  "This  is  the  one 
who  came  down  from  heaven  and  bore  God,  and  gave  God  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  world." 

When  the  child  made  her  first  Communion  she  was  invested  with  the 
scapular  immediately  after  and  was  given  a  rosary.  My  friend  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  at  what  the  Blessed  Virgin  had  accomplished  in 
having  the  child  make  her  first  Communion,  and  that  "she  now  belongs 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin." 

Our  Lord,  when  not  considered  as  God  by  the  Maryites,  is  regarded 
by  them  as  merely  a  man.  He  doesn't  count.  I  am  not  sure  that  he  is 
even  a  man  to  them.  He  is  a  thing  which  makes  the  Maryites  recipients 
of  grace  and  communion  through  Mary ! 

This  child  illustrates  how  the  religion  of  the  idolater  is  acquired.  It 
is  not  a  case  of  spontaneous  combustion,  as  the  false  prophet  teaches. 
It  is  the  religion  carefully  drilled  into  Catholic  children. 

Catholics  talk  about  their  "favorite  prayers."  Nine  out  of  ten  will  tell 
you  that  her  "favorite  prayer  is  the  Hail  Mary";  the  others  are  most 
likely  to  prefer  the  "Hail,  Holy  Queen." 

If  you  ask  a  Catholic  why  she  does  not  pray  to  God  (or  to  Jesus), 
she  will  say  by  the  book,  with  great  and  virtuous  rebuke,  "God  will 
never  condemn  me  for  praying  to  his  mother,  for  he  honored  and 
obeyed  her  himself."  (John  4:23-24.) 

A  rosary  Catholic  questioned  me  not  long  ago  because  she  had  dis- 
covered that  I  do  not  pray  to  Mary  nor  say  her  rosary.  She  said,  "The 
Blessed  Mother  will  not  love  you."  I  asked  her  why  she  did  not  pray  to 
our  Lord.  She  replied,  "Your  mother  is  still  living,  but  my  mother  died 
when  I  was  a  child ;  so  I  took  the  Blessed  Virgin  for  my  mother.  I  have 
always  prayed  to  her.  When  I  crossed  the  Atlantic  there  was  a  storm 
and  I  was  afraid  I  would  be  drowned ;  but  I  prayed  to  her  to  save  me 
and  protect  me,  and  she  did.  She  has  always  protected  me,  and  I  have 
always  prayed  to  her." 

But  this  woman's  attitude  toward  the  Blessed  Virgin  in  prayer  and 

[19] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

confidence  is  just  the  same  as  that  of  devotees  whose  mothers  are  liv- 
ing. It  is  of  less  devotion  than  most,  for  she  does  not  pray  a  great  deal 
— but  when  she  does  pray  she  does  it  with  a  rosary. 

Now,  this  woman  did  not  "take  the  Blessed  Virgin  for  her  mother" 
through  any  spontaneous  idea  of  her  own;  she  did  it  because  this  is 
what  they  teach  Catholic  children  to  do.  When  mothers  are  not  dead 
they  have  other  excuses  for  making  the  children  do  it.  (Acts  10:25-26. 
2  Tim.  2:12.) 

Why  did  she  take  the  Blessed  Virgin  for  her  mother?  Is  her  own 
mother  not  still  existing  somewhere?  Why  did  she  not  keep  her  own 
mother?  Why  should  she  "take"  someone  else's  mother?  If  she  must 
pray  to  a  mother,  why  did  she  not  pray  to  her  own  mother?  And  why 
does  she  put  a  mother  in  the  place  of  God? 

Instead  of  saying  "My  mother  has  left  me,  but  God  is  present  and  is 
watching  over  me;  therefore  I  am  not  alone,  for  he  is  here;  I  will  turn 
to  him  in  prayer  for  comfort." 

No ;  she  turned  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  in  prayer,  under  the  direction 
of  the  false  prophet. 

She  denied  both  her  mother  and  her  God.  (Ps.  26:9-10.) 

The  idolaters  attribute  all  the  acts  of  divine  Providence  to  Mary  and 
thank  her  for  all  answers  to  prayer. 

If  a  victory  is  won  at  the  same  time  that  a  rosary  is  said,  it  is  proof 
that  Mary  won  the  victory.  If  someone  wins  a  victory  when  he  is  not 
praying  to  Mary,  it  is  proof  that  she  was  watching  over  him  when  he 
didn't  know  it. 

If  some  one  loses  a  battle,  Mary  is  thanked  for  saving  what  is  left. 
If  some  one  falls  and  breaks  a  leg,  Mary  is  thanked  because  he  broke 
one  instead  of  two ;  and  this  favor  is  attributed  to  the  Hail  Marys  he 
said  at  the  time  or  to  the  rosaries  he  was  in  the  habit  of  saying. 

They  "have  confidence  in  Mary." 

Every  vision  of  Mary  is  infallible;  and  the  most  convincing  "proof 
the  false  prophet  can  offer  is  to  say  "Our  Blessed  Lady  herself  told  us 
so."  (2  Tim.  3:8.) 

No  wonder  there  are  Modernists. 

The  idolaters  sadly  need  the  instruction  of  St.  John  of  the  Cross  in 
regard  to  visions.  (Ascent  of  Mt.  Carmel.)  (Mark  8:11-12.  2  Thes. 
2:8-9.) 

Convents 

Convents  of  women  are  prolific  sources  of  idolatrous  teaching.  The 
following  illustrates  the  atmosphere  of  convent  life.  It  is  taken  from 
the  biography  of  the  founder  of  an  order. 

-  withdrew  from  the  confessional  full  of  perplexity  and  sad- 
ness, and,  as  usual,  had  recourse  to  the  Blessed  Virgin.  'My  good 
Mother/  she  said  to  her,  before  leaving  the  church,  'if  it  is  our  Lord's 
will  that  I  should  go  home,  make  my  parents  change  their  minds  about 
it,  and  let  my  mother  write  to  me  to  stay  in  Paris.'"  .  .  . 

[20  1 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

(A  letter  she  received  that  night  from  home  is  supposed  to  be  proof 
that  Mary  answered  her  prayer.) 

.  .  .  "—  -  had  scarcely  uttered  these  words  full  of  confidence  in 
divine  Providence,  when  the  porter  of  the  house  came  up  and  gave  her 
a  letter  directed  in  an  unknown  hand.  She  opened  it,  and  in  an  envelope, 
unaccompanied  by  a  single  word  of  explanation,  found  a  note  for  one 
hundred  francs.  It  was  never  known  who  sent  this  offering.  There  was 
no  one  to  thank  but  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

"This  time  —  -  had  recourse  to  our  Lady  of  Victories.  Having 
placed  the  matter  in  her  hands,  she  went  to  call  on  a  person  who  she 
thought  would  lend  her  the  money."  (This  person  would  not;  but  on 
leaving  the  house  she  met  a  person  who  had  heard  of  her  undertaking 
and  who  gave  her  the  money.  Of  course,  this  proves  that  the  Blessed 
Virgin  did  it,  and  that  she  must  be  addressed  under  the  title  of  our 
Lady  of  Victories.) 

The  pagans  have  similar  proofs  for  confidence  in  their  gods. 

Thus  is  God's  honor  given  to  another.  (St.  John  5  :43~44.  Is.  42  :8.) 

In  the  last  days  of there  is  no  record  of  idolatry ;  let  us  hope 

that  there  was  none,  and  that  God  through  suffering  taught  her  confi- 
dence in  and  personal  relation  to  himself. 

Catholic  writers  tell  Protestants  that  they  should  not  judge  of  the 
Catholic  church  by  the  average  Catholic,  but  should  judge  it  by  the 
saints  who  are  the  highest  exemplars  of  it,  and  by  the  writings  of  the 
explainers  and  apologists. 

But  if  the  saints  are  the  measure  of  the  Catholic  training  in  perfec- 
tion, the  average  Catholic  is  the  measure  of  the  average  Catholic  train- 
ing. We  must  judge  the  church  in  general  by  the  faith  and  the  practice 
of  the  average  Catholic ;  and  this  shows  that  the  church  does  not  teach 
and  practice  what  she  defines.  (Is.  1 129.) 

The  Maryites  wandering  around  from  one  altar  of  Mary  to  another; 
worshipping  her  here  as  "Our  Lady  of  Victories,"  here  as  "Our  Lady 
of  Good  Counsel,"  here  as  "Our  Lady  of  Perpetual  Succor,"  here  as 
"the  Mother  of  God,"  are  doing  what  the  Buddhists  do  when  they  wor- 
ship various  avatars  of  Buddha, and  what  the  pagans  do  when  they  wor- 
ship Deity  under  various  attributes  and  titles  and  objects,  (i  Tim. 
4:1-2.) 

Converts 

A  convert  who  comes  into  the  church  through  grace  (and  not  through 
some  merely  intellectual  motive,  or  through  some  temporal  motive) 
comes  instinctively  to  the  true  practice  in  the  Sacraments.  He  takes  to 
them  as  a  duck  takes  to  water. 

But  the  practice  of  idolatry  he  acquires  with  effort  and  repugnance. 
It  feels  to  him  like  a  foreign  country,  but  the  Sacraments  feel  like 
home. 

The  false  prophet  tells  the  convert  that  he  must  "cultivate  devotion 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin" ;  that  he  will  never  be  a  real  Catholic  until  he  has 

[21] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

the  Maryite  practice  in  this  respect ;  that  this  spirit  and  practice  is  the 
mark  of  the  Catholic  church  by  which  it  is  known  (thus  does  the  Beast 
put  his  mark  on  the  church)  ;  that  the  person  who  has  not  this  spirit 
cannot  really  have  faith ;  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  with  him. 

These  arguments  do  not  affect  the  convert  so  much ;  but  when  he  is 
told  that  the  practice  of  idolatry  produces  love  for  Jesus,  and  is  pro- 
duced by  love  for  Jesus,  and  that  Catholics  on  account  of  it  have  a  love 
for  Jesus  that  he  cannot  have,  he  makes  great  efforts  to  acquire  the 
spirit,  the  artificial  state  of  mind  of  the  idolater. 

By  arguments,  by  threats  of  loss  of  grace,  by  promises  of  extraor- 
dinary graces  and  of  indulgences,  does  the  false  prophet  gradually  con- 
duct the  convert  into  this  heresy ;  and  having  once  acquired  it,  he  for- 
gets that  fountain  of  grace  from  which  he  was  sprung.  He  relies  on 
Mary  instead  of  on  Jesus ;  and  if  he  had  true  faith  to  begin  with,  in  the 
end  his  portion  is  unhappiness  and  bitterness. 

The  first  devotion  of  the  convert  to  Jesus  is  good. 

While  the  convert  is  struggling  to  acquire  the  habit  of  the  idolater, 
the  Antichrist  encourages  him,  and  spurs  him  to  greater  efforts  by  tell- 
ing him  that  it  is  doubtful  if  he  will  ever  succeed  or  ever  have  the  true 
faith ;  that  Catholics  are  born,  not  made ;  that  the  faith  and  practice  is 
inherited  and  must  be  born  in  the  blood  in  order  to  be  real  and  correct ; 
that  converts  really  never  acquire  faith ;  that  they  become  well  instruct- 
ed and  know  all  the  explanations,  but  they  really  never  have  the  Cath- 
olic faith,  like  the  Catholic  who  is  born;  that  they  are  conscientious 
about  fulfilling  the  duties,  but  any  old  worshipper  of  Mary,  though  he 
may  not  go  to  church  nor  receive  the  Sacraments,  and  though  he  may 
live  a  life  of  sin,  yet  he  has  "The  Faith"  and  the  true  practice  that  a 
convert  cannot  have ;  that  it  lies  in  faith  in  Mary  and  worship  of  her ; 
that  this  is  the  real  Catholic  faith. 

Without  converts  there  would  be  no  church. 

The  first  Irish  Catholics  were  all  converts.  The  first  German  Catholics 
were  converts.  Likewise  the  English  and  French  and  Italian. 

Some  of  these  were  not  true  converts.  They  merely  changed  their 
paganism,  and  their  descendants  have  continued  the  pagan  practice  in 
the  church.  Some  pagans  have  had  the  Roman  paganism  forced  upon 
them  with  the  Christian  faith — for  instance,  in  Mexico,  where  the  pa- 
ganism of  the  Catholics  is  the  same  that  is  found  in  other  Catholic 
countries.  (2  Pet.  2 122.  Judges  2  iiQ.)' 

In  every  nation  the  church  is  founded  on  converts.  St.  Paul,  who 
evangelized  all  the  civilized  nations  of  our  Lord's  time,  was  a  convert. 
St.  Peter,  who  was  made  head  of  the  Apostles,  was  a  convert.  All  the 
Apostles  were  converts.  All  the  first  Christians  were  converts.  Our 
Lord's  "brethren"  were  converts ;  when  he  went  up  to  Jerusalem  they 
did  not  yet  believe  in  him.  Our  Lord  converted,  and  then  founded  his 
church  on  converts.  Having  established  a  church  with  converts,  he  then 
spread  it  by  means  of  them. 

The  Apostles  were  not  yet  converted  when  our  Lord  was  crucified. 

[22] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 


They  were  completely  converted  by  the  resurrection.  St.  Thomas  was 
not  converted  until  he  had  put  his  hands  into  the  print  of  the  nails. 

The  church  is  full  of  hereditary  Catholics  who  have  never  been  con- 
verted to  our  Lord,  although  they  are  Maryites.  Perhaps  because  they 
are  Maryites.  (2  Cor.  3:14-16.) 


Testimony  of  Apostles 


The  writings  of  the  Apostles  and  their  successors,  and  the  tradition 
that  has  been  handed  down  from  them  to  us  in  the  New  Testament,  are- 
evidence  of  what  their  faith  and  practice  were.  There  is  no  idolatry  in 
it.  It  is  like  the  faith  of  converts  before  they  become  idolaters.  (John 
15:27.) 

The  Apostles  lived  with  our  Lord  in  person.  They  had  seen  his  mir- 
acles. They  had  heard  all  his  teachings.  They  have  left  a  story  which 
has  been  carefully  preserved  by  Divine  Providence  in  the  church.  As 
human  testimony  alone,  this  is  proof.  (Gal.  1 .7-9.) 

This  record  testifies  truly  to  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  Apostles 
and  their  immediate  successors.  The  teaching  of  the  false  prophet  has 
no  place  in  it,  and  is  contrary  to  it. 

The  Apostles  may  not  always  have  understood  our  Lord's  teaching. 
But  they  always  knew  what  it  was.  They  testify  to  the  fact  that  they 
knew  what  it  was  even  when  they  did  not  understand  it. 

Dishonesty 

In  "explaining"  to  a  convert  the  Catholic  practice,  the  false  prophet 
says:  "See  how  Protestants  honor  pictures  and  statues.  The  Catholic 
church  only  does  the  same  thing.  As  you  keep  a  picture  of  your  dead 
mother  in  your  room  to  remind  you  of  her,  as  you  drape  pictures  and 
statues  with  flowers,  and  treat  them  with  respect,  as  you  salute  the  flag, 
so  does  the  Catholic  church  do  with  the  memorials  of  those  whom  we 
honor." 

Liar!  Do  Protestants  kneel  before  pictures  and  statues  praying  to  the 
person  they  represent?  or  to  the  pictures  themselves?  Do  they  burn 
candles  before  pictures  and  statues  ? 

When  Catholics  march  in  procession  behind  the  statue  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  on  rosary  Sunday,  are  they  honoring  her  as  the  mother  of  our 
Lord?  No,  they  are  not.  Listen,  and  you  will  hear  them  praying  to  her. 
They  are  worshipping  her  as  a  God — as  a  present  God  who  hears  their 
prayers  and  "protects"  them.  They  are  not  honoring  her.  They  are  dis-* 
honoring  her,  and  they  are  trying  to  obtain  something  from  her.  They 
give  her  honor  they  do  not  give  our  Lord. 


"The  Apostlef  Fast 

e  bool 

be  Ho 

[23] 


"The  Apostles'  Fast"  is  a  little  book  from  the  Mission  Press  which 
contains  a  nine-days'  prayer  to  the  Holy  Ghost  in  preparation  for  Pen- 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

tecost.  "The  Apostles'  Fast"  is  explained  in  the  book  as  the  name  given 
to  the  ancient  custom  of  making  a  nine-days'  prayer  at  this  time  in  im- 
itation of  the  nine-days'  prayer  and  waiting  of  the  Apostles  before  the 
first  Pentecost,  when  in  the  upper  room  at  Jerusalem  they  received  the 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

This  practice  has  disappeared  from  the  church,  so  far  as  I  know.  It 
has  been  supplanted  by  the  custom  of  making  novenas  to  saints. 

This  little  book  contains  so  much  devotion  to  the  Holy  Ghost  that  the 
false  prophet  is  evidently  alarmed ;  and  so  he  has  provided  for  neutral- 
izing the  effect  and  making  it  of  no  reality. 

The  following  are  his  devices:  He  has  labeled  each  prayer  in  heavy 
type.  Instead  of  placing  the  Our  Father  by  itself  as  a  separate  prayer, 
he  has  made  it  a  part  of  what  he  has  labeled  "The  Triple  Prayer'- 
"The  Triple  Prayer"  consisting  of  the  "Our  Father,  the  Hail  Mary, 
and  the  Creed"  as  one  prayer. 

He  has  also  placed  in  this  book  a  picture.  This  is  the  picture : 


THE    PRACTICE    OF   IDOLATRY 

As  you  see,  this  depicts  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  coming  to  the 
soul  by  prayer  to  Mary  and  through  the  intercession  of  Mary.  The 
soul  who  wants  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  this  picture, 
gets  them  by  establishing  himself  in  the  relation  of  prayer  to  Mary.  He 
has  a  personal  relation  with  Mary.  She  is  the  person  he  treats  with  in 
regard  to  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Our  Lord  is  not  in  this  picture, 
unless  he  is  symbolized  as  Divinity  itself  in  the  triangle.  There  is  not 
even  an  emblem  in  this  picture  to  represent  the  person  of  our  Lord  in 
relation  to  us.  He  is  entirely  dissolved,  and  Mary  is  in  his  place.  The 
other  persons  of  the  Trinity  exist  in  this  picture  in  special  emblems — 
the  Eye  and  the  Dove.  There  are  the  Rays  of  the  Spirit  bearing  the 
gifts  as  flames.  There  is  no  Jesus.  And  Mary  is  represented  as  the  per- 
son through  whose  mediation  the  Holy  Ghost  is  sent  from  the  Father — 
from  God. 

Contrast  this  with  our  Lord's  words,  "I  will  ask  the  Father,  and  he 
will  send  you  the  Paraclete."  .  .  .  "The  Paraclete  whom  the  Father 
will  send  in  my  name."  .  .  .  "Ask  the  Father  in  my  name."  .  .  .  "Ask 
me  in  my  name." 

This  book  also  contains  a  bit  of  interesting  information.  It  says: 
"Pentecost  was  also  called  the  Feast  of  Roses ;  and  in  England  and  else- 
where, red  roses  were  showered  upon  the  people  during  the  reading  of 
the  Gospel  at  Mass,  in  remembrance  of  the  tongues  of  fire,  which  de- 
scended upon  the  Apostles." 

The  custom  of  using  roses  to  symbolize  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
has  passed  away ;  but  the  Dominicans  bless  roses  on  rosary  Sunday  and 
distribute  them  to  the  people  in  honor  of  Mary. 


The  Name  of  Prayer 


Jesus  says,  "Pray  to  the  Father  in  my  name," — and  "Pray  to  me  in 
my  name." 

What  does  it  mean  to  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus? 

There  is  only  one  possible  meaning. 

It  means  to  pray  through  the  intercession  of  the  name  of  Jesus.  It 
means  that,  because  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  have  a  human  intercessor 
with  God,  and  because  this  is  the  only  name  in  heaven  and  earth  that  is 
the  name  of  that  intercessor,  therefore  we  must  pray  in  his  name. 

But  the  Society  of  the  Holy  Name  prays  to  God  in  official  prayer  in 
the  name  of  Mary  as  intercessor.  It  disobeys  our  Lord's  command  and 
denies  the  true  faith  by  putting  another  name  in  the  place  of  inter- 
cessor. 

It  is  one  of  the  clever  and  peculiar  ironies  of  the  false  prophet  that 
he  should  make  the  Holy  Name  Society  insult  the  Holy  Name. 

I  think  the  Holy  Name  Society  does  not  realize  that  it  has  adopted 
the  heresy  of  making  Jesus  merely  a  sacrifice  and  of  making  Mary  our 
intercessor  with  God. 

[25] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

The  following  is  the  prayer : 

"An  Act  of  Consecration  to  the  Ploly  Name 

"Knowing  how  much  the  Sacred  Name  of  God  is  worthy  of  rever- 
ence, and  knowing  how  amiable  is  the  Adorable  Name  of  His  Divine 
Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  I  desire  to  enter  the  Holy  Name  Society ; 
I  promise  to  observe  its  rules  and  attend  its  meetings,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote the  glory  of  his  Holy  Name,  and  my  own  sanctification ;  and  rely- 
ing on  the  grace  of  God  and  the  intercession  of  our  Immaculate  Mother, 
I  promise  especially  to  abstain  from  all  profane  and  immodest  lan- 
guage, and  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  prevent  the  use  of  such  language  by 
others.  I  consecrate  myself  to  my  amiable  Saviour,  and  wish  to  live  and 
die  in  His  Holy  love." 

The  Holy  Name  Society  goes  so  far  as  to  say  it  relies  on  this  other 
name  as  the  name  of  the  intercessor  with  God.  It  declares  its  confidence 
in  Mary  as  being  the  intercessor. 

This  is  the  great  heresy. 

The  true  faith  makes  no  act  of  faith  in  Mary's  name  or  in  Mary's  in- 
tercession. There  is  no  such  article  of  faith  and  no  such  act  of  faith  in 
the  true  faith. 

The  false  prophet  requires  such  an  act  of  faith ;  and  he  also  makes 
Catholics  substitute  this  name  and  this  act  of  faith  for  the  Catholic 
faith  in  Jesus. 

The  true  faith  requires  faith  in  God,  and  faith  in  the  intercession  of 
Jesus  with  him.  The  true  faith  requires  confidence  in  no  other  person  or 
name.  To  express  confidence  in  Mary  as  the  intercessor  of  our  grace  is 
a  denial  of  the  Catholic  faith.  It  is  an  insult  to  Jesus. 

When  a  Protestant  places  the  picture  of  some  holy  person  in  his 
room,  he  does  so  in  order  that  he  may  be  reminded  of  this  person  and 
of  his  virtues.  He  will  say  to  his  friend :  "Place  this  picture  in  your 
child's  room  that  the*  sight  of  it  may  keep  in  his  mind  the  person  it  rep- 
resents, and  that  he  may  be  reminded  of  the  virtues  of  this  person.  Tell 
him  the  story  of  this  person  in  order  that  he  may  be  inspired  by  this 
knowledge  to  imitate  the  person's  virtues."  There  are  some  Catholics 
who  do  the  same. 

But  the  Catholic  idolater  says :  "Put  this  picture  of  a  saint  in  your 
child's  room  to  draw  down  the  protection  of  the  saint.  Teach  your  child 
to  pray  to  the  saint  every  day  in  order  that  the  saint  in  return  for  this 
honor  may  procure  grace  for  him.  Teach  your  child  to  rely  on  this 
saint  for  spiritual  and  temporal  help,  for  the  help  of  the  saint  will  be  in 
proportion  to  the  honor  and  prayers  you  pay  her.  If  your  child  offends 
God,  the  saint  will  save  him  from  the  consequences,  and  when  he  dies 
the  saint  will  take  him  into  heaven.  If  he  has  sufficient  confidence,  and 
pays  the  saint  sufficient  honor,  he  will  not  have  to  go  to  Purgatory." 

Of  course,  the  false  prophet  consents  to  the  theory  that  grace  has  its 
origin  in  God.  But  the  saint  is  taught  as  the  seat  of  these  powers  of 

[26] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

God.  The  Catholic  child  is  not  permitted  to  forget  that  there  is  a  God 
and  that  all  things  were  created  by  him.  The  false  prophet  must  concede 
something  in  order  to  keep  his  power  in  the  church.  Having  conceded 
this,  a  Catholic  may  practice  and  believe  all  the  idolatry  he  chooses.  He 
may  worship  Mary  as  the  seat  of  all  God's  attributes  and  as  the  vicar 
of  all  his  works.  (2  Pet.  2  :i.)! 

"The  SanSluary  Boy  s  Daily  Companion" 

"The  Sanctuary  Boy's  Daily  Companion"  is  published  with  the  im- 
primatur of  an  archbishop  and  circulated  by  the  Truth  Society.  It  con- 
tains a  picture  of  our  Lord  and  a  poem  of  aspiration  for  a  holy  life. 
Then  comes  an  explanation  of  the  office  and  duties  of  an  altar-boy  and 
a  history  of  the  minor  orders.  Following  this  is  the  ritual  for  serving 
Mass,  the  "Prayers  after  Mass,"  the  "Divine  Praises,"  some  "Rules  for 
the  Sanctuary,"  and  then  some  prayers.  The  prayers  are  as  follows: 
"Prayers  with  Indulgences,"  "A  Visit  to  Our  Lady,"  "Good-night, 
Jesus." 

These  prayers  teach  our  Lord  as  remaining  stationary  on  the  altar ; 
and  they  teach  the  Blessed  Virgin  as  remaining  with  the  soul  at  all 
times  when  away  from  the  altar. 

The  indulgenced  prayers  consist  of  three  aspirations  to  our  Lord — 
one  aspiration  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  two  following  aspirations  to 
Mary — "Sweet  Heart  of  Mary,  be  my  salvation"  (300  days  each  time), 
and  "Our  Lady  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  pray  for  us"  (300  days  be- 
fore the  Blessed  Sacrament). 

The  prayer  to  Jesus  is  a  good-bye  to-  him  when  leaving  the  sanctuary. 
He  is  taught  as  a  person  who  will  be  absent  when  we  are  away  from  the 
altar,  but  whom  we  will  think  of  with  fond  memories. 

The  prayer  to  "Our  Lady"  is  the  following : 

"A  Visit  to  Our  Lady 
"(After  Holy  Communion) 

"I. 

"Mother,  upon  my  lips  today 

Christ's  precious  blood  was  laid ; 
That  blood  which  centuries  ago 

Was  for  my  ransom  paid. 
And  half  in  love  and  half  in  fear, 

I  seek  for  aid  from  thee, 
Lest  what  I  worship,  wrapt  in  awe, 

Should  be  profaned  by  me. 


271 


THE    PRACTICE    OF   IDOLATRY 

"2. 

"Wilt  thou  vouchsafe,  as  Portress  dear. 

To  guard  these  lips  today  ? 
Lessen  my  words  of  idle  worth 

And  govern  all  I  say ; 
Keep  back  the  sharp  and  quick  retort 

That  rose  so  easily ; 
Soften  my  speech  with  gentle  art, 

To  sweetest  charity. 

"3. 

"Check  thou  the  laugh  or  careless  jest 

That  others  harsh  may  find ; 
Teach  me  the  thoughtful  words  of  love 

That  soothe  the  anxious  mind. 
Put  far  from  me  all  proud  replies, 

And  each  deceitful  tone, 
So  that  my  words  at  length  may  be 

Faint  echoes  of  thine  own. 

"4- 

"O  Mother,  thou  art  mine  today, 

By  more  than  double  right ; 
A  soul  where  Christ  reposed  must  be 

Most  precious  in  thy  sight. 
And  thou  canst  hardly  think  of  me 

From  thy  dear  Son  apart ; 
Then  give  me  from  myself  and  sin 

A  refuge  in  thy  heart." 

The  above  is  an  example  of  one  of  the  most  dangerous  seductions  of 
the  cup  of  abominations.  Our  Lord  is  taught  as  something  past  and 
gone  and  as  merely  blood.  The  fact  that  he  has  reposed  in  the  soul  (evi- 
dently as  a  piece  of  the  Blessed  Virgin's  flesh)  is  represented  as  some- 
thing that  should  make  the  Blessed  Virgin  love  the  soul.  She  is  repre- 
sented as  having  the  soul  always  in  her  sight  and  as  being  the  person 
who  controls  it  and  is  present  to  it. 

She  is  here  put  into  the  place  of  God  the  Father,  who  always  sees 
the  soul  and  who  after  Holy  Communion  sees  it  and  Jesus  in  it ;  she  is 
put  into  the  place  of  God  as  Holy  Ghost,  who  influences  the  soul,  who 
teaches  it  and  soothes  it  and  aids  it;  she  is  put  into  the  place  of  God 
the  Son,  who  is  Jesus,  and  who  in  his  heart  gives  us  a  refuge  from  sin ; 
she  is  put  into  the  place  of  Jesus,  who  remains  in  the  soul  in  person  as 
God,  and  who  is  there  after  Holy  Communion  to  help  and  watch  over 
the  soul. 

[28! 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

By  this  abominable  prayer,  the  fruit  of  Holy  Communion  is  the 
presence  of  Mary  in  the  soul  to  watch  it  and  be  with  it  and  care  for  it 
during  the  day.  All  the  aspirations  that  would  naturally  be  addressed 
to  Jesus  after  Holy  Communion,  if  the  soul  believed  that  Jesus  had 
really  been  received,  are  here  addressed  to  Mary.  She  is  the  person  who 
is  taught  as  remaining  in  the  soul  by  virtue  of  this  Holy  Communion, 
inspiring  it  and  loving  it.  She  is  represented  as  Jesus  and  as  the  Holy 
Trinity;  as  omnipotent,  omniscient,  omnipresent;  checking  the  actions 
and  protecting  from  evil.  And  when  the  altar-boy  leaves  the  Sanctuary 
he  is  expected  to  leave  Jesus,  and  to  take  Mary  with  him  wherever  he 
goes.  (Acts  7:40.) 

The  true  faith  teaches  that  after  Holy  Communion  God  the  Father 
is  looking  at  the  soul  with  satisfaction,  on  account  of  the  presence  of 
his  Son;  Jesus,  God  the  Son,  is  present  and  we  have  a  refuge  in  his 
heart;  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Paraclete  sent  by  Jesus,  is  now  the  gift 
of  Jesus  in  the  heart;  and  this  Paraclete  (the  Holy  Spirit  of  Jesus  and 
the  Father)  is  present,  consoling,  watching,  inspiring,  checking,  loving. 

All  that  the  true  faith  teaches  of  God  is  by  this  idolatry  transferred 
to  Mary,  and  she  is  addressed  and  worshipped  and  honored  and  loved, 
with  the  prayer,  the  honor,  the  confidence  and  the  doctrines  that  belong 
to  God  and  that  do  not  belong  to  Mary,  and  that  cannot  be  applied  to 
her  except  by  the  greatest  and  grossest  idolatry,  by  denying  the  true 
faith  and  insulting  Jesus. 

Dishonesty 

The  false  prophet  when  accused  of  idolatry  always  has  "explana- 
tions." Sometimes  these  are  merely  gross  lies.  They  are  always  lies ; 
but  sometimes  the  lies  are  backed  up  by  sophistries  by  which  he  tries  to 
"make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason."  Sometimes  he  tries  to  prove 
an  alibi  by  pointing  to  the  catechism  and  to  some  other  pious  book 
where  there  is  contained  some  article  of  the  true  faith ;  and  he  says : 
"Do  you  see  how  this  book  teaches  this  subject?  Therefore,  it  is  im- 
possible that  we  do  what  you  say.  The  catechism  says  that  the  Mass  is 
worship  of  God  through  Jesus ;  therefore,  we  do  not  pray  to  Mary.  The 
catechism  says  that  only  God  knows  our  most  secret  thoughts,  words 
and  acts,  and  is  omnipresent;  therefore,  your  charge  cannot  be  true." 
For  the  church  forbids  in  theory  what  she  teaches  in  theory  and  prac- 
tice, (i  Tim.  4:1-2.) 

Images,  PiSlures  and  Talismans 

Catholic  writers  point  with  scorn  to  the  Protestant  practice  of  for- 
mer years  which  forbade  the  use  of  pictures  and  symbols  in  religion. 
They  tell  us  that  Protestants,  when  they  first  separated  from  Rome, 
would  not  even  put  a  cross  on  their  churches.  That  they  destroyed  all 

[29] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

images  and  looked  upon  them  as  tools  of  the  devil  and  idols  of  idola- 
ters. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  Protestants  were  somewhat  right  in  this  idea 
and  practice  at  that  time.  There  are  still  idols  in  the  church.  I  hear  of  a 
picture  that  moves  its  eyes.  Copies  of  this  picture  sometimes  move  their 
eyes  also ;  but  the  copies  must  be  authentic,  and  must  be  procured  from 
the  nuns  who  have  the  original. 

Here  are  some  extracts  from  a  pamphlet  distributed  by  the  Catholic 
Truth  Society  on  ''Our  Lady  of  Perpetual  Help" : 

"We  find  the  first  miraculous  picture  about  the  middle  of  the  I5th 
century,  in  the  possession  of  a  pious  merchant  who  lived  on  the  island 
of  Crete.  He  was  so  tenderly  devoted  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  that  his 
happiest  hours  were  spent  before  a  little  shrine,  where  he  had  deposited 
his  precious  treasure.  .  .  .  History  has  not  handed  down  to  us  what 
artist  first  conceived  the  sublime  idea  or  was  so  singularly  favored  as  to 
portray  this  favored  Madonna.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "At  this  moment  the  pious  merchant,  remembering  the  many 
favors  he  had  received  from  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  was  suddenly  in- 
spired to  exhibit  before  his  despairing  companions  the  miraculous  pic- 
ture. .  .  . 

"Kneeling  down  on  the  deck  of  the  storm-tossed  ship,  they  joined 
their  hands  in  fervent  prayer  before  the  Sacred  Picture.  Scarcely  had 
the  unfortunate  ones  raised  their  entreating  eyes  toward  Mary,  when 
lo,  the  storm  ceased,  the  heavens  became  bright,  the  surging  waves  gave 
way  to  a  calm  and  placid  sea,  and  a  few  days  later  the  ship  arrived 
safely  in  a  port  of  Italy.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "Such  was  the  first  prodigy  which  Almighty  God  manifested  in 
honor  of  his  blessed  Mother  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  fa- 
vored image.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  "Accordingly  on  the  27th  of  March,  1499,  a  most  imposing  cer- 
emony took  place  before  the  assembled  clergy  and  people  of  Rome.  Our 
dear  Madonna  was  carried  in  triumphal  procession  through  the  streets 
of  the  Eternal  City  and  placed  in  a  beautiful  church  which  she  had  so 
singularly  selected  for  her  future  resting-place.  It  was  from  this  Sanc- 
tuary she  would  continue  to  dispense  her  special  graces  and  favors  to 
the  multitudes  who  would  there  seek  her  maternal  protection." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  hymn  and  prayers  to  Mary  con- 
tained in  the  same  pamphlet: 

"Thy  love  has  smiled  upon  me 

Ere  I  thy  name  could  know, 
Before  my  first  Hail  Mary 
So  long,  so  long  ago." 

"Behold  at  thy  feet,  O  Mother  of  perpetual  Help,  a  wretched  sinner 
who  has  recourse  to  thee  and  confides  in  thee;  O  Mother  of  Mercy, 
have  pity  on  me.  I  hear  thee  called  by  all  the  Refuge  and  Hope  of  sin- 
ners; be  then  my  refuge  and  hope.  Assist  me  for  the  love  of  Jesus 

[30] 


THE   PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

Christ.  Stretch  forth  thy  hand  to  a  miserable  fallen  creature  who  rec- 
ommends himself  to  thee  and  devotes  himself  to  thy  service  forever. 

"I  know  that  with  thy  help  I  shall  conquer.  I  know  that  thou  wilt 
assist  me  if  I  recommend  myself  to  thee ;  but  I  fear  that  in  time  of  dan- 
ger I  may  neglect  to  call  on  thee  and  thus  lose  my  soul.  This  grace, 
then,  I  ask  of  thee,  and  this  I  beg  with  all  the  fervor  of  my  soul,  that  in 
all  the  attacks  of  hell  I  may  ever  have  recourse  to  thee.  O  Mary,  help 
me.  O  Mother  of  Perpetual  Help,  never  suffer  me  to  lose  my  God." 

"O  Mother  of  Perpetual  Help,  grant  that  I  may  ever  invoke  thy  most 
powerful  name,  which  is  the  safeguard  of  the  living  and  the  salvation 
of  the  dying." 

"O  Mother  of  Perpetual  Help,  thou  art  the  dispenser  of  all  the  gifts 
which  God  grants  us  miserable  sinners,  and  for  this  he  has  made  thee 
so  powerful,  so  rich,  and  so  bountiful  that  thou  mayst  succor  us  in  our 
misery." 

"In  thy  hands  I  place  my  eternal  salvation  and  to  thee  I  intrust  my 
soul." 

"Obtain  for  me,  therefore,  the  pardon  of  my  sins,  love  for  Jesus, 
final  perseverance,  and  the  grace  to  ever  have  recourse  to  thee,  O 
Mother  of  Perpetual  Help." 

Thus  we  see  how  Mary  is  put  in  the  place  of  God,  and  Mary's  picture 
in  the  place  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  We  see  Mary  in  the  place  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Paraclete  whom  our  Lord  sends  to  put  us  in  mind  of 
him  and  to  help  us  to  love  and  to  pray;  we  see  her  in  the  place  of  the 
Father,  who  hears  us  for  the  love  of  his  Son ;  we  see  her  in  the  place 
of  Jesus,  the  mediator  and  advocate  who  obtains  the  pardon  of  our 
sins;  we  see  her  in  the  place  of  the  Trinity — Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost — always  present  to  hear  and  help  us,  and  to  whom  we  owe  those 
aspirations  which  the  idolaters  address  to  Mary. 

No  wonder  there  are  Modernists. 

Protestants  were  right  in  their  fear  of  the  use  of  images.  They  had 
just  left  a  church  in  which  they  had  practiced  idolatry;  in  order  to 
wipe  out  the  stain  and  to  preserve  their  children  from  infection,  there 
was  no  way  but  to  avoid  the  occasion  of  sin.  The  pendulum,  when 
swung  too  far  to  one  side,  swings  far  to  the  other  in  restoring  the  bal- 
ance and  coming  to  rest.  It  is  the  law  of  nature. 

Protestants  did  what  total  abstinence  societies  do  in  their  campaign 
against  intemperance.  They  did  what  alcoholists  must  do  when  they 
give  up  the  habit.  They  did  what  the  Catholic  church  thought  itself 
justified  in  doing  when  it  forbade  Catholics  to  read  the  Bible.  The  Bible 
is  still  unknown  to  the  average  Catholic,  and  there  are  numbers  of  Cath- 
olics who  have  never  seen  one,  and  who  fear  the  use  of  the  Bible  as 
they  fear  poison. 

Protestants  now  use  pictures,  flowers  and  symbols  in  religion  without 
fear;  for  their  children  have  been  trained  in  the  correct  use  of  them, 
and  idolatry  is  no  longer  with  them,  even  as  a  tradition. 

Another  enemy  of  our  Lord  and  his  real  presence  is  a  book  called 

[31] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

"The  Keepsake  of  Calvary."  This  is  a  book  written  evidently  to  con- 
vince us  that  the  relics  of  the  so-called  wood  of  the  true  cross  are  a 
special  legacy  left  to  us  by  our  Lord  to  remind  us  of  him  and  to  give  us 
a  memorial  to  love  and  venerate. 

The  history  of  the  relics  is  told  and  a  great  deal  is  made  of  the  vener- 
ation shown  to  these  pieces  of  wood,  and  of  the  animosity  shown  to 
such  reverence  during  those  ages  of  superstition  and  corruption  known 
as  the  "Ages  of  Faith." 

These  ages,  known  to  Protestants  as  the  "Dark  Ages,"  are  also 
known  to  all  true  Catholics  as  the  "Dark  Ages" ;  for  they  are  ages  of 
ignorance  and  superstition  in  the  church  and  among  nations. 

The  only  keepsake  of  Calvary  left  us  by  our  Lord  is  the  Blessed  Sac- 
rament. This  is  the  memorial  he  wishes  us  to  love  and  venerate.  But  in 
the  Dark  Ages  this  memorial  was  much  neglected,  while  religious  honor 
and  faith  were  given  to  such  things  as  pictures  and  statues  and  medals 
and  pieces  of  wood.  These  things  received  honor  due  to  our  Lord,  even 
as  the  subjective  image  of  Mary  now  receives  such  honor. 

The  book  mentioned  advances  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  vener- 
ation of  these  pieces  of  wood  the  example  of  the  preservation  of  Lu- 
ther's inkwell  by  Protestants,  and  the  reverence  shown  by  Protestants  to 
memorials  of  their  religious  leaders.  This  is  a  most  dishonest  argument ; 
for  Protestants  do  not  give  such  things  religious  honors.  And  if  they 
did  the  fact  would  not  furnish  us  with  any  reason  to  do  the  same. 

If  our  Lord  had  desired  that  the  wood  of  the  cross  should  be  pre- 
served as  a  memorial  and  keepsake  of  him,  he  would  have  so  instructed 
his  Apostles.  On  the  contrary,  he  provided  that  such  things  should  dis- 
appear. The  religious  veneration  of  such  articles  is  opposed  to  the  true 
faith  and  to  the  purpose  of  our  Lord  in  establishing  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment. 

We  would  undoubtedly  feel  emotion  on  beholding  the  wood  of  the 
cross  on  which  our  Lord  was  really  crucified.  But  we  feel  none  on  be- 
holding the  relics  reputed  to  be  such,  and  I  thank  God  that  I  am  not  re- 
quired to  expend  on  pieces  of  wood  the  honor  due  to  himself.  How 
many  who  feel  wonder  and  emotion  in  the  presence  of  such  articles  are 
without  love  and  belief  in  the  presence  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament ! 

What  a  blessing  it  is  that  the  Providence  of  God  left  no  trace  of  the 
body  or  the  tomb  of  our  Lord's  mother !  It  is  not  necessary  to  believe 
that  God  took  her  body  into  heaven.  God  was  not  obliged  to  take  her 
body  into  heaven ;  and  though  he  perhaps  did  so,  we  are  not  obliged  to 
make  an  act  of  faith  in  any  such  legend  or  tradition.  It  is  sufficient  that 
he  has  shown  his  mercy  to  us  in  not  leaving  such  an  object  to  become 
the  center  of  another  of  those  great  idolatries  of  which  there  have  been 
so  many. 

The  infallible  truths  left  to  the  church  by  our  Lord  are  few  and 
fundamental.  The  conclusions  resulting  from  them,  like  the  conclusions 
resulting  from  the  fundamental  truths  of  mathematics,  are  demonstra- 
ble. The  axioms  of  revelation,  like  the  axioms  of  mathematics,  must  be 

[32] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

accepted  by  faith  and  as  infallible.  The  rules  deduced  from  them  and 
the  problems  solved  by  them  are  matters  of  demonstration.  Persons 
who  are  not  expert  mathematicians  may,  for  lack  of  time  and  skill,  put 
their  trust  in  the  solutions  offered  by  those  who  have  worked  out  the 
problems ;  but  this  is  an  individual  affair,  a  matter  of  expedience.  For 
the  human  race  such  solutions  are  matters  of  demonstration,  and  not  of 
faith,  and  cannot  be  taught  as  the  axioms  of  faith.  Every  soul  is  at  lib- 
erty intellectually  in  regard  to  them.  He  is  bound  by  the  integrity  of 
things,  but  not  by  the  person  of  the  mathematicians. 

There  are  many  things  believed  in  the  church  that  are  not  the  infalli- 
ble truths  committed  to  the  church  by  our  Lord  as  his  revelation  and  as 
the  truth  of  salvation. 

Nobody  needs  to  believe  in  the  pieces  of  wood  called  relics  of  the 
true  cross.  There  is  not  any  evidence  for  them. 

The  First  Commandment 

The  worship  that  the  Chinese  give  their  ancestors,  or  the  worship 
the  Buddhists  give  the  avatars  of  Buddha,  is  akin  to  Catholic  practice. 

According  to  Catholic  arguments,  these  pagans  cannot  be  accused  of 
idolatry,  because  they  do  not  say  these  deities  are  God. 

So  long  as  Catholics  refrain  from  saying  to  Mary  "Thou  art  God," 
they  think  they  are  not  committing  idolatry — as  though  idolatry  con- 
sisted merely  of  calling  a  creature  God. 

What  we  owe  to  God  is  something  more  than  merely  saying  "Thou 
art  God  and  all  power  has  its  origin  in  thee."  We  owe  God  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  those  relations  he  has  with  us.  We  owe  him  the 
prayer  and  confidence  and  honor  that  Catholics  give  to  Mary. 

We  owe  Jesus  something  more  than  saying  "Thou  art  a  God  sacri- 
ficed as  man."  We  owe  him  something  more  than  the  egotistical  enjoy- 
ment of  the  spectacle  of  his  suffering  as  it  passes  before  our  eyes  like 
a  panorama.  We  owe  him  communication  in  the  relations  he  has  with 
us. 

Jesus  came  to  tell  us  of  our  relations  with  God,  and  to  instruct  us  in 
prayer.  What  he  taught  us  is  the  contrary  of  the  practice  of  the  idola- 
ters. 

We  need  to  communicate  with  our  Lord  in  his  being  and  office  as 
mediator  and  as  intercessor  between  us  and  God;  we  need  to  adore 
him  and  love  him  as  our  sweetness  and  life  and  hope,  as  our  Helper  in 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  we  need  to  ask  the  Father  of  Lights  in  his  name  for 
all  we  desire. 

But  Maryites  give  to  Mary  all  that  belongs  to  Jesus.  Their  idea 
seems  to  be  that  as  Jesus,  being  man,  has  certain  relations  with  us, 
therefore  Mary,  being  a  woman,  has  those  relations  actually ;  that  as 
Jesus  is  intercessor  because  he  is  a  man,  therefore,  Mary,  because  she 
is  a  woman,  is  intercessor.  They  prefer  Mary  in  these  relations ;  there- 
fore, they  "take"  her  instead  of  Jesus  for  their  mediator.  It  matters  not 

[  33  1 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

to  them  that  there  is  no  basis  for  such  faith  in  Mary;  for  "faith  is  be- 
lieving what  you  know  isn't  true." 

They  not  only  break  the  first  commandment,  but  they  stultify  reason 
and  integrity  and  the  true  faith  by  their  deceptions  and  lies  and  sophis- 
tries. (2  Cor.  1 117-20.) 

There  is  no  greater  delusion  than  the  idea  asserted  by  the  false 
prophet,  that  the  worship  of  Mary  springs  spontaneously  from  the  love 
for  Jesus.  It  does  not. 

Protestants  love  Jesus  and  do  not  pray  to  Mary.  Catholics  pray  to 
Mary  who  do  not  love  Jesus. 

The  Maryite  knows  more  imaginary  things  about  Mary  than  he 
knows  true  things  about  Jesus.  He  has  not  read  the  Scriptures.  Our 
Lord's  life  he  knows  only  by  the  fragments  he  hears  read  from  the  pul- 
pit. The  legends  regarding  Mary  have  for  him  the  same  reality  as  the 
record  of  our  Lord.  Before  he  can  read  he  is  taught  the  Hail  Mary  as 
his  prayer.  Mary  is  his  first  God.  He  learns  Jesus  later,  in  theory,  useful 
chiefly  for  furnishing  him  with  grounds  for  his  worship  of  Mary.  Per- 
sonal devotion  is  primarily  to  Mary ;  secondarily,  to  Jesus. 

His  worship  of  Mary  is  based  on  a  false  faith  in  her,  a  faith  which 
destroys  the  church's  whole  fabric  of  the  teaching  of  the  relation  be- 
tween us  and  God  through  Jesus. 

Those  teachers  of  religion  who  boast  of  the  Catholic  knowledge  of 
Jesus  obtained  by  saying  the  rosary  of  Mary ;  who  limit  personal  rela- 
tion with  him  to  such  prayer ;  who  teach  this  rosary  as  a  sufficient  and 
efficacious  knowledge  of  our  Lord,  insult  the  capacity  of  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  average  Catholic. 

To  make  instruction  and  devotion  such  as  is  obtained  by  recitation 
of  the  rosary  of  Mary,  has  an  effect  on  the  soul  like  that  produced  on 
the  faculties  of  a  child  by  solitary  confinement  from  birth. 

Much  instruction  may  be  gained  from  sermons,  but  the  soul  of  the 
Maryite  has  nothing  with  which  to  apprehend  a  sermon  of  the  true 
faith.  To  him  the  sermon  is  rhetoric  which  passes  through  the  mind 
like  wind  and  leaves  no  trace.  All  he  hears  is  grist  for  the  mill  by  which 
he  grinds  out  Hail  Marys.  Words  regarding  Jesus  are  merely  words. 
Words  regarding  Mary  are  something  to  do.  Mary  has  been  given  to 
him  as  practical  religion.  (John  8:42-49.) 

In  a  book  on  the  symbols  used  in  the  church  I  read  that  the  symbol 
of  the  heart  of  Mary,  "almost  certain  to  be  found  in  Catholic  churches," 
has  no  basis  in  doctrine  such  as  that  of  the  symbol  of  the  Heart  of 
Jesus  (which,  this  writer  says,  rests  on  the  revelation  made  to  Mar- 
garet Mary),  and  that  its  use  must  be  attributed  chiefly  to  the  desire  for 
artistic  symmetry  in  decoration. 

But  though  this  symbol  has  no  basis  in  doctrine,  it  appears  also  in 
prayer-books.  Is  this  also  due  to  the  desire  for  artistic  symmetry  and 
decorative  effect? 

A  Catholic  writer  says  that  "The  Catholic  supreme  devotion  to  God 
is  safeguarded  by  the  obligation  of  hearing  Mass  every  Sunday,  which 

[34] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

sacrifice,  as  every  Catholic  child  is  taught,  can  be  offered  to  God  alone. 
The  adoration  which  a  Catholic  pays  to  Christ  really  present  on  the 
altar  keeps  this  supreme  devotion  constantly  before  the  mind/1 

This  merely  means  that  a  Catholic  is  not  permitted  to  forget  that 
there  is  a  God,  and  that  Jesus  is  God.  While  the  Catholic  acknowledges 
that  Jesus  is  present  on  the  altar,  he  does  not  acknowledge  his  presence 
anywhere  else;  but  adores  Mary  as  the  all-present  being.  Even  in  the 
face  of  the  presence  on  the  altar,  Mary  is  addressed  as  the  presence  in 
the  heart. 

The  denials  of  the  false  prophet  remind  me  of  this  clipping,  ex- 
tracted by  someone  from  a  novel :  "With  one  hand  he  held  her  beauti- 
ful golden  head  above  the  cruel  waves,  and  with  the  other  called  loudly 
for  assistance." 

The  "explainer"  and  "apologizer"  with  one  hand  holds  his  beautiful 
painted  idol  above  the  cruel  waves,  and  with  the  other  madly  denies 
that  he  ever  saw  or  caressed  her.  These  explainers  are  not  the  "virgins 
who  follow  the  Lamb,"  and  "in  whose  mouth  no  lie  is  found."  (Is. 
45:16-17.) 

Authority 

A  writer  tells  us  that  "The  miraculous  medal  so  much  found  in 
France  .  .  .  has  not  been  approved  by  the  church." 

But  the  miraculous  medal  so  much  found  in  France  is  so  lavishly 
distributed  in  America  that  I  doubt  if  there  is  an  American — Protestant 
or  Catholic — who  has  not  either  seen  or  possessed  one.  With  it  are 
distributed  stories  of  its  miraculous  origin  and  works.  If  it  has  not  been 
approved  by  the  church,  why  does  the  church  distribute  it  by  its  official 
orders?  Why  does  the  church  propagate  what  it  does  not  approve? 
Does  this  mean  that  the  false  prophet  propagates  it  until  such  time  as 
he  can  say  that  it  is  of  faith  because  of  its  popular  usage? 

The  miraculous  medal  shows  the  Blessed  Virgin  with  her  hands 
pointing  downward  and  shooting  forth  rays  of  grace.  (Is.  26:13.  Apoc. 
13:16.) 

Do  not  Catholics  accept  the  miraculous  medal  from  the  orders  just 
as  they  accept  the  Sacraments? 

Catholics  need  to  be  taught  the  grounds  of  faith.  They  need  also  to 
be  taught  the  doctrines  of  faith,  and  to  have  them  distinguished  from 
the  doctrines  of  men.  They  need  to  learn  that  the  doctrines  of  men  are 
not  and  never  can  be  doctrines  of  faith. 

The  Modernists  tell  us  (so  I  hear)  that  the  consensus  of  Catholic 
belief  produced  by  the  "immanent  sense"  of  Catholics  is  the  ground  and 
rule  of  faith.  If  this  doctrine  is  true,  then  idolatry  and  the  worship  of 
Mary  is  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  doctrines  that  have  been  revealed 
and  defined  of  our  Lord's  nature  and  works  are  not  the  Catholic  faith. 

But  the  Modernist  theory,  if  this  is  the  Modernist  theory,  is  not  true. 
The  true  ground  of  faith  is  our  Lord  himself,  and  our  knowledge  of 

[35] 


THE    PRACTICE    OF   IDOLATRY 

him  is  based  on  the  witness  of  the  Scriptures,  combined  with  all  other 
history  and  reason.  The  rule  of  faith  is  our  Lord's  own  word  as  it  is 
recorded  in  the  tradition  handed  down  to  us  by  the  church,  chiefly  in 
the  Scriptures. 

Belief  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  or  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  church  cannot  be  the  rule  of  faith.  The  evidence  for  our  Lord's 
existence  is  historical  evidence.  Our  ground  for  faith  in  him  is  intrinsic 
to  himself,  and  is  supported  by  that  internal  witness  which  our  Lord 
tells  us  is  the  witness  of  souls  of  good  will  who  are  drawn  by  the 
Father.  Having  accepted  our  Lord  for  what  he  is  as  well  as  for  the 
prophecies  and  results,  we  trust  the  witnesses  who  testify  of  him;  and 
we  compare  their  witness  with  the  word  of  Jesus  and  the  testimony  of 
reason  and  history. 

The  church  has  no  mission  to  define  the  products  of  the  "immanent 
sense"  as  Catholic  doctrine.  It  can  define  only  the  deposit  of  faith  left 
by  our  Lord  to  the  Apostles.  It  can  declare  what  is  reasonable  and  in 
accordance  with  that  doctrine  and  what  is  opposed  to  it ;  but  these  are 
declarations  of  the  church  and  of  human  reason,  and  are  not  themselves 
the  deposit  of  faith,  nor  can  they  be  taught  as  such. 

The  deposit  of  faith  is  a  fact.  It  does  not  depend  upon  what  Catholics 
believe.  There  have  been  times  when  almost  the  whole  church  believed 
heretically.  Our  religion  rests  on  that  deposit,  and  not  on  the  practice 
of  the  church.  This  deposit  exists  in  definition  and  tradition.  It  can  and 
must  be  separated  from  the  products  of  the  "immanent  sense"  that 
have  become  fossilized  into  doctrines  accepted  by  Catholics — often 
'merely  because  they  have  been  believed  by  many,  or  some,  or  most 
Christians.  Many  of  these  human  doctrines  can  be  traced  to  some  per- 
son who  is  the  "authority"  for  them.  The  basic  truths  of  faith  are 
clearly  defined  by  Jesus.  All  other  truths  can  be  deduced  from  them. 
Only  those  defined  by  Jesus  are  binding  "under  pain  of  mortal  sin," 
as  the  infallible  revelation.  "Jesus  is  God,"  but  the  church  is  not  God, 
it  is  a  witness  to  Jesus.  It  can  witness  to  what  Jesus  taught;  it  cannot 
teach  as  the  revelation  of  Jesus  what  has  been  deduced  by  philosophers 
from  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  can  teach  things  as  what  they  are,  not  as 
something  they  are  not.  It  can  teach  facts  as  facts,  and  beliefs  as  be- 
liefs. The  resurrection  is  a  fact  to  which  the  church  is  a  witness,  as  it  is 
witness  to  other  facts. 

The  church  is  not  a  witness  to  the  "assumption  of  the  Blessed  Vir- 
gin," and  has  no  evidence  for  it.  It  cannot  be  taught  as  a  fact,  nor  can 
we  be  commanded  to  "believe"  it  "under  pain  of  mortal  sin." 

The  church  and  the  faith  of  the  church  were  not  built  on  the  Bible, 
but  existed  before  the  Bible  was  made.  The  church  was  built  by  the 
oral  teaching  of  the  Apostles  and  by  the  institution  of  the  Sacraments. 
The  Blessed  Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  of  the  Last  Supper  is 
the  foundation  of  the  church  as  a  visible  organization  with  authority. 
Our  Lord's  ordination  of  the  Apostles  and  his  command  to  them  to  go 
as  a  body  administering  the  Sacraments  and  teaching  what  he  had 

[36] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

taught  them  are  the  commission  and  foundation  of  the  church.  The 
church  has  no  authority,  no  commission,  no  revelation  now  that  it  had 
not  then.  The  doctrines  that  were  not  necessary  to  faith  then  are  not 
necessary  now. 

The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  records  of  the  church.  They 
are  a  witness  to  the  faith.  The  church  existed  before  these  writings 
were  collected  into  this  book.  The  book  contains  the  story  of  our  Lord 
as  it  was  told  by  the  persons  who  heard  it  from  the  Apostles.  It  con- 
tains what  the  church  can  tell  us  of  our  Lord  and  his  words.  We  do  not 
know  of  any  other  words  of  our  Lord  but  those  that  are  recorded  in 
this  book. 

The  church  is  a  fact.  And  the  church  is  a  witness  of  what  is  re- 
corded in  the  Bible.  The  church  is  also  a  witness  to  the  Sacraments  and 
to  their  institution  and  their  meaning. 

The  church  can  tell  us  as  a  fact  that  our  Lord  said  and  did  those 
things  recorded  in  the  Bible ;  and  it  can  tell  us  as  a  fact  that  our  Lord 
instituted  the  Sacraments.  It  is  a  witness  to  those  things  as  facts.  It  is 
a  witness  to  certain  doctrines  as  the  actual  doctrines  taught  by  our 
Lord.  These  doctrines  are  facts  of  faith. 

There  are  other  things  believed  in  the  church  that  can  not  be  taught 
by  the  church  as  facts.  The  church  is  not  a  witness  to  them.  She  can 
testify  that  they  have  been  believed  in  the  church.  She  cannot  testify 
that  they  are  true.  She  cannot  tell  us  that  our  Lord  taught  them.  She 
cannot  tell  us  that  she  witnessed  them.  She  can  teach  them  only  as  be- 
liefs and  customs  and  opinions  that  have  prevailed. 

When  doctrines  are  deduced  by  reason  from  the  facts  that  the  church 
testifies  to,  these  doctrines  have  the  authority  of  those  facts  and  that 
reason. 

When  doctrines  are  not  based  either  upon  those  facts  nor  upon  rea- 
son deduced  from  them,  they  have  no  authority — and  no  amount  of 
arbitrary  declaration  of  them  as  Catholic  doctrines,  and  no  amount  of 
practice  built  upon  them,  can  make  them  true  or  make  them  infallible. 

The  idea  many  Catholics  have  that  faith  is  based  on  the  church  is 
wrong.  The  church  is  not  a  divinity.  Faith  is  built  upon  our  Lord.  The 
church  is  truly  a  witness — an  historical  witness  to  our  Lord  and  to  his 
teaching.  She  is  also  the  minister  of  his  Sacraments. 

We  must  have  faith  in  our  Lord  before  we  can  accept  the  church  as 
the  minister  of  his  Sacraments.  We  get  faith  in  our  Lord  by  knowing 
about  him.  But  when  our  Lord  is  preached,  we  believe  in  him  on  the 
evidence  contained  in  his  character  and  his  doctrine,  and  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  prophecy ;  we  do  not  believe  in  him  simply  on  the  word  of  the 
church. 

Having  accepted  our  Lord,  we  accept  the  church  as  his  minister  on 
the  testimony  of  history  and  reason,  the  testimony  of  the  church  being 
a  part  of  that  history.  The  church  is  first  a  witness  to  our  Lord ;  and 
then  a  minister  to  him. 

When  the  church  defines  a  doctrine  of  our  Lord,  it  defines  a  doctrine 

[37] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

of  our  Lord.  When  it  defines  a  doctrine  of  the  church,  it  defines  a  doc- 
trine of  the  church.  The  doctrines  of  our  Lord  are  the  infallible  doc- 
trines of  God. 

When  the  Bishop  of  Rome  speaks  to  the  church  of  Rome,  he  is 
speaking  to  the  church  of  Rome.  When  he  speaks  and  acts  as  Bishop 
of  Rome,  he  is  not  therefore  speaking  and  acting  in  the  chair  of  Peter. 
The  chair  of  Peter  and  the  chair  of  Rome  are  not  identical,  even 
though  the  Bishop  of  Rome  may  be  entitled  to  the  chair  of  Peter. 

The  chair  of  Peter  will  exist  when  the  city  of  Rome  is  no  more. 
There  is  no  "eternal  city"  on  this  earth.  The  chair  of  Peter  existed 
before  there  was  a  Roman  See,  and  it  can  exist  when  the  Roman  See 
disappears.  (Mark  28:20.) 

Therefore  we  need  not  be  dismayed  at  the  prevalence  of  idolatry  and 
at  the  great  display  of  authority  the  false  prophet  makes  for  it.  The 
Blessed  Sacrament  is  the  seat  and  the  center  of  the  church  of  the  Sac- 
raments, and  the  center  of  the  unity  of  the  church.  We  have  his  prom- 
ises and  we  depend  upon  him.  He  knows  his  own  ways  of  preserving 
his  truth,  and  he  will  preserve  it.  We  have  only  to  be  true  to  him  and 
to  refuse  to  practice  idolatry.  No  one  can  command  us  to  practice 
idolatry  and  enforce  the  command. 


Idolatry 


We  sometimes  see  in  Catholic  houses  a  picture  entitled  "Christ  or 
Diana?"  It  represents  the  Early  Christian  maiden  standing  before  the 
altar  of  Diana  and  refusing  to  throw  in  the  grain  of  incense  that  would 
save  her  life.  Her  pagan  friends  stand  near  and  beg  her  to  perform  this 
little  act  of  homage,  which  to  most  of  them  means  nothing. 

Catholics  do  not  think  of  applying  to  themselves  the  lesson  of  this 
picture. 

So  accustomed  are  Catholics  to  idolatry,  that  it  is  often  practiced 
automatically  by  those  to  whom  it  means  nothing.  It  is  an  act  of  no  im- 
portance. Just  so  the  pagans  who  looked  upon  the  worship  of  Diana  as 
a  myth  could  not  understand  the  Christians  who  refused  the  grain  of 
incense  at  the  risk  of  torture  and  death. 

Idolatry  is  looked  upon  with  indifference  even  by  those  Catholics 
who  are  forced  to  acknowledge  its  nature.  They  have  not  the  faith  the 
first  Christians  had.  Centuries  of  the  habit  of  idolatry  have  taken  it 
from  them.  (2  John  I  :i-n.) 

No  wonder  our  Lord  said  "Woe  to  those  by  whom  the  scandal 
comes,"  and  "When  the  Son  of  Man  comes  will  he  find  faith,  think 
you,  upon  earth  ?" 

Catholics  are  largely  divided  between  the  Maryites  and  the  merely 
nominal  Catholics.  The  nominal  Catholic  thinks  that  so  long  as  a  Cath- 
olic keeps  the  other  eleven  commandments,  it  does  not  matter  whom 
he  prays  to.  He  thinks  prayer  to  Mary  is  a  pretty  and  useful  practice; 

[38] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

it  is  sweet  to  see  the  women  and  children  doing  what  is  so  poetical; 
Mary  is  a  beautiful  idea  as  a  God,  and,  after  all,  religion  is  only  a  sub- 
jective thing  anyway — merely  a  myth. 

This  attitude  is  the  fruit  of  idolatry.  But  for  fear — on  account  of 
something  about  religion  that  appeals  to  the  sense  of  uncertainty,  and 
the  trust  in  an  unknown  power — the  nominal  Catholic  goes  to  church 
and  has  a  priest  when  he  dies.  The  church  is  a  habit.  Also  one's  friends 
and  relatives  must  be  considered. 

The  pagans  who  flocked  into  the  church  when  it  became  the  state 
religion  and  fashionable  brought  the  principles  and  the  practices  of 
paganism  with  them.  They  merely  substituted  Jesus  and  Mary  for 
Diana  and  Minerva. 

The  improved  system  of  morals  that  accompanied  the  change  to  the 
Christian  faith  does  not  justify  the  idolatry. 

The  Christian  idolatry  is  the  second  beast  of  idolatry  seen  by  St. 
John.  It  tries  to  disguise  its  nature  by  wearing  the  horns  of  the  Lamb. 
But  it  is  the  beast  of  idolatry  among  the  nations,  and  its  prophet  is  the 
Antichrist. 

The  ancient  world  with  its  idolatries  is  the  first  beast  of  St.  John.  All 
commentators  agree  to  this.  To  follow  the  analogy  is  easy.  The  subject 
is  before  our  eyes  all  the  time.  Against  this  first  beast  of  idolatry  God's 
anointed  witness,  the  Hebrew  church,  held  up  the  light  of  truth  from 
the  candlestick  it  possessed  in  the  testimony  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Against  the  second  beast  God's  second  witness,  the  Catholic  church, 
holds  up  the  candlestick  of  the  New  Testament. 

Both  witnesses  testified  against  the  false  prophet  and  the  harlot. 

As  the  prophets  of  the  old  law  saw  the  Hebrew  church,  the  Spouse 
of  God,  as  a  harlot  in  its  practice,  so  St.  John  saw  the  religious  adul- 
tery of  the  Spouse  of  the  Lord. 

He  saw  the  prostration  of  the  witnesses  also,  and  the  apparent  vic- 
tory of  the  false  prophet.  But  the  Spirit  of  Life  remains  in  the  wit- 
nesses. The  Life  has  long  been  stirring.  The  Protestant  Reformation 
was  an  effect  of  it.  The  Council  of  Trent  was  a  fruit  of  it. 

The  witness  who  has  so  long  lain  prostrate  in  the  streets  of  the 
spiritual  Sodom,  a  mockery  and  a  byword  and  rejoicing  for  the  ene- 
mies of  religion,  will  soon  shake  off  the  garments  of  shame  with  which 
the  false  prophet  disguises  her. 

O  Hope  of  the  Church,  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
thy  vineyard  has  long  been  the  prey  of  the  beast;  the  vine  has  been 
trodden  under  foot. 

In  the  name  of  thy  holy  Child  Jesus,  send  us  more  Life.  O  God  of 
Hosts,  convert  us  and  show  us  thy  face  and  we  shall  be  saved. 

The  church  will  sing  again  the  glory  of  thy  commandments  and  thy 
salvation — the  long- forgotten  Canticle  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb.  (John 
15  :i.  Apoc.  5  11-14;  16:2;  n  13-11 ;  14:1-7;  19:11-16.  Isaias. 


[39] 


THE    PRACTICE   OF   IDOLATRY 

Summary  of  the  Accusation 

i)!.  The  Maryite  practice  in  the  presence  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  is 
nothing  less  than  a  denial  of  the  real  presence. 

2).  Maryite  prayer,  as  practiced  by  the  "Our  Father  and  Hail  Mary" 
in  combination,  is  a  practical  denial  of  our  Lord's  humanity,  and  a 
substitution  of  Mary  for  him.  (Acts  4:11-12.) 

3).  So  has  the  worship  of  Mary  become  one  with  the  worship  of  God, 
that  Catholics  pass  automatically  from  the  Our  Father  into  the  Hail 
Mary — unconsciously  also ;  the  person  of  Mary  having  become  to 
them  one  with  the  person  of  God. 

4).  Rome  commands  prayer  to  Mary.  The  clergy  command  prayer  to 
Mary. 

5).  Catholic  prayer-books,  books  of  devotion  and  books  of  instruction 
and  biography,  teeming  with  the  heresies  on  which  Maryite  practice 
rests,  are  distributed  with  the  approbation  of  Rome.  The  heresy  is 
propagated  by  societies  formed  for  that  purpose. 


40 


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